If you still haven’t booked your summer holiday, travel expert Eoghan Corry has some tips to help you save money.
Eoghan warned that flights to Spain are expected to be very expensive this summer as demand is high and airlines seek profits after a difficult few years due to Covid.
He said if you are booking now July might be a better time to go than August.
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Eoghan told RSVP Live: “There is no doubt that airlines are looking for margin.
“The rates they put in place for July and August were quite expensive. We can see the July rates go down a bit as they are obviously not booked in the volume we thought. But the August rates are still students.
“Ryanair said it expects the average fare for 2022 to be higher than 2019. As far as Michael O’Leary is concerned, he is still chasing higher prices. One of the things that worries him about the market is that rising prices for everything else will reduce the holiday budget.”
If money is tight, Portugal or Croatia might be a better option for fun in the sun.
“The demand for Spain is holding up, but the demand for Portugal is not as strong,” explained Eoghan.
“Somewhere like Croatia is very interesting – we have new routes to Croatia and it depends very heavily on the Russian market.
“So all those hotel beds that would have been occupied by Russians won’t be and they have to be sold to someone else for there to be opportunities for Irish holidaymakers there.”
He suggested keeping an eye out for new air routes opening to save some pennies.
“When an airline opens a route, it takes about a year for them to market themselves so that you get better fares there.
“For example Madeira from Ryanair, twice a week, that’s a good example.Alghero in Sardinia. There is a small town called Nîmes between Avignon and Marseille and there is a direct route from Ryanair.”
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