{"id":660542,"date":"2026-10-20T17:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T17:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/660542\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T17:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T17:06:15","slug":"ryanairs-michael-oleary-warns-european-airfares-could-rise-by-up-to-20-next-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/660542\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryanair\u2019s Michael O\u2019Leary warns European airfares could rise by up to 20% next year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>European airfares will see their \u201cbiggest increase in history\u201d next year, <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/maintopics\/ryanair_topic-5064299.html\">Ryanair<\/a>\u00a0chief executive Michael O\u2019Leary said on Tuesday, with airlines largely unhedged against higher jet <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/maintopics\/fuel-prices_topic-5329865.html\">fuel costs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Mr O\u2019Leary forecast fewer seats would be available next year because of airline bankruptcies and takeovers. Combined with airlines\u2019 limited fuel hedging, this would push fares up by as much as 20%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cYou&#8217;re going to see airfares rise next year in Europe, I think by 10, 15, maybe 20%. You&#8217;re going to see the biggest increase in airfares, I would say, in history in Europe for the next 12 months,\u201d Mr O\u2019Leary told a news conference in Brussels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/maintopics\/iran_topic-5322218.html\">Iran war<\/a> has driven jet fuel prices sharply higher, squeezing margins for airlines without sufficient hedging in place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Mr O\u2019Leary said Ryanair and other European airlines had strong fuel-hedging positions for 2026. Europe\u2019s largest airline was 80% hedged at $67 per barrel until March 2027 when the conflict began at the end of February.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">However, Mr O\u2019Leary said most European airlines had little fuel hedging in place from April 2027. Ryanair has secured just 15% of its fuel costs for next year at $85 a barrel, compared with spot rates around double that level, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">Boeing 737 MAX 10 certification<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Mr O\u2019Leary was in Brussels to announce that Ryanair was cutting 20 routes and more than one million seats from Belgium in its winter schedule after the country\u2019s plans to increase its aviation tax to \u20ac7 in January, from \u20ac2 currently.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The industry veteran also said he was optimistic that US certification of the Boeing 737 MAX 10 would be completed this month, allowing Ryanair to receive 16 aircraft in early 2027.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cBoeing are hoping to have the MAX 10, the new aircraft, certified before the end of October &#8230; We&#8217;re pretty optimistic that that date will be hit,\u201d Mr O\u2019Leary told Reuters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was expected to announce on Tuesday that the Federal Aviation Administration had approved the long-delayed 737 MAX 10, after a glitch with its navigation software threatened to delay certification further.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\n             &#8211; Reuters\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"European airfares will see their \u201cbiggest increase in history\u201d next year, Ryanair\u00a0chief executive Michael O\u2019Leary said on Tuesday,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5658,72,63615,61,11829,60,1899],"class_list":["post-660542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-irish-examiner-instagram","tag-business","tag-fuel-prices","tag-ie","tag-iran","tag-ireland","tag-ryanair"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}