Rival airlines queue up to feast on cancellation furore
RIVAL airlines appear to have slashed their prices in the midst of the Ryanair cancellation debacle.
Aer Lingus last week extended its ‘Happy Winter’ sale to include travel for October. It made the announcement just two days after the press conference at which Michael O’Leary had apologised for the ‘mess’ which saw an average of almost 50 flights a day being cancelled for six weeks.
A spokesperson for Aer Lingus said: ‘Originally, the sale was for the travel period from November 1, 2017 to February 28, 2018 (Europe) and November 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018 (North America).’
This European sale included flights from Dublin to destinations including Dusseldorf, Brussels, Amsterdam and Hamburg for €29.99. Flights to Nice and Frankfurt were on sale for €39.99.
Aer Lingus said the ‘Happy Winter’ sale was due to draw to a close at midnight last night, adding: ‘There are no further plans to extend the sale at this time.’
When announcing the extension, Aer Lingus appeared to reach out directly to the disgruntled Ryanair customers when it said: ‘As a nation of keen travellers, there is nothing more disappointing than having your holiday plans cancelled at the eleventh hour.’
In the same statement, the airline said it had seen ‘record demand for its holiday rescue fares’ and a spokesperson said it didn’t want to see anyone ‘grounded this October’.
It also moved to ‘reassure’ passengers that: ‘Aer Lingus will continue to focus on providing a reliable, punctual and proudly Irish experience.’
Meanwhile, EasyJet launched a flash sale last week, just days after Ryanair had announced the cancellations, offering up to 20% off 100,000 seats. Tickets were on sale for a limited period.
But a spokesperson for the company yesterday insisted that this was just a coincidence in timing and was not linked to Ryanair’s cancellations, adding that there was ‘no connection’ between the two.
However, Eurowings took a personal dig at its Irish rivals and issued an advertisement on social media in recent days, which featured a picture of controversial Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary and the airline’s distinctive blue and yellow logo blurred in the background, with ‘O’Deary!’ emblazoned across the image. Eurowings accompanied this image with the lines ‘Has your Ryanair flight been cancelled? Book low-cost flights with Eurowings now!’
Ryanair launched its own massive seat sale over the weekend in an apparent bid to entice customers back in the middle of this controversy.
It was set to run until midnight last night and included offers to Brussels, Paris, Ibiza, Hamburg, Eindhoven and Warsaw from Irish airports for less than €10.
Earlier this year, the airline Wizz Air launched what it described as ‘rescue fares’ for ‘passengers affected by today’s announcement of all Ryanair flight cancellations from Ukraine’.
Ryanair had announced in July that it was cancelling plans to start flying to Ukraine, as it claimed that the main airport in Kiev was not honouring a ‘growth agreement’ made earlier this year.