Ryanair’s reaction to the “idiotic” departure tax: they are cancelling eight Budapest routes

Ryanair has reacted to the – “idiotic”- departure tax. The airline is cancelling eight Budapest routes that were already removed from the schedule on Wednesday. In addition, Ryanair boss O’Leary said the era of EUR 10 flights is over.

Ryanair cancelled eight Budapest routes

According to Telex, Ryanair’s decision affects the following destinations: Bordeaux, Bournemouth, Cologne, Kaunas, Kraków, Lappeenranta, Riga, and Turin. This list however does not contain cities which they would have cancelled anyways, such as Rimini. Ryanair has been selling tickets to these eight cities for a long time, and now it has decided not to launch flights there. According to okosutas.hu, the decision is almost certainly a reaction to the passenger tax introduced by the Hungarian government. In all similar cases, this is what Ryanair did before. Now, they are doing the same: they are reducing the number of flights on routes that are not performing well based on the bookings.

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Ryanair has warned us that the departure tax may result in cancellations

Already after the introduction of the departure tax, Ryanair announced that this extra cost could result in fewer flights and cancellations, reports bank360.hu. For those bookings made before the announcement of the tax and made after June 30, Ryanair included HUF 3,900 (EUR 9,89) in the price. Moreover, passengers could cancel their flights. In response to this, the Capital City Government Office launched a consumer protection investigation against Ryanair in Hungary. The result of this was made public by Judit Varga, the Minister of Justice. According to the decision, a HUF 300 million (EUR 765,000) consumer protection fine was imposed on Ryanair due to the transfer of the departure tax.

O’Leary: the era of EUR 10 flights is over

In the interview on BBC, Ryanair boss O’Leary talked about the future of the airline. “We think people will continue to fly frequently. But I think people are going to become much more price sensitive and therefore my view of life is that people will trade down in their many millions,” he said. He also believes that the era of EUR 10 flights is over. Ryanair will not be offering flights at rock bottom prices anymore thanks to the soaring cost of fuel.

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Source: okosutas.hu, Telex, BBC, bank360.hu