Travel agents charter their own Seville f lights for Rangers fans
Some supporters pay £1,500 for tickets... when they used to be just £40
A TRAVEL agent has chartered flights to Seville to meet the huge demand from Rangers fans.
The Ibrox side will be playing for the honour of lifting their first European title in 50 years later this month as they take on German side Eintracht Frankfurt in Seville.
It follows their 3-1 win against RB Leipzig on Thursday.
But fans are being forced to pay up to £1,500 for tickets which were advertised by some airlines for around £40, for the week before the Europa League final.
The rush has also seen flights from UK airports snapped up by supporters desperate to travel to the Spanish city on May 18.
EasyJet is charging just under £1,500 for a one-off service from Glasgow to Seville for the game.
Costing £740 each way, the flight tickets vanished from the easyJet site just before midday.
Scottish travel agent Barrhead Travel secured a charter flight for Rangers fans and is hoping to add more. The flight will leave Glasgow on the morning of the match and return straight after, at a cost of £849 per person.
Jacqueline Dobson, president of Barrhead Travel, said: ‘This is a once in a lifetime trip for many Rangers fans. We’re pleased we have been able to help hundreds of fans realise their dreams of being in Seville.’
Rangers will receive an official allocation of 9,500 tickets for the final but many thousands more fans are expected to travel.
Ryanair has hiked its prices for the occasion as costs for flights from Edinburgh to Seville soared to £481. A week earlier the same Ryanair flight was advertised for as little as £40 return.
But it is not just in Scotland that costs have spiked. Ryanair flights from Stansted to Seville were being sold for £468 return yesterday afternoon.
Fan Scott Purdon, 48, lost his flight ticket due to a third-party booking site offering him tickets, despite the flight being full.
He said: ‘Cheapest option was to go via Palma but using a thirdparty booking system caused me to lose the first booking for an oversubscribed TUI flight.’
Due to the cancellation he is now leaving from Newcastle.
He has spent £640 on flights so far and £370 on accommodation but still does not have a ticket.
He said: ‘If I miss out it’s just sun, sangria and a square with a big screen.’