The cost of Paris-bound flights with both Aer Lingus and Ryanair on November 18th, when Ireland take on France in the World Cup play-off took off within minutes of the draw being announced this afternoon.
The basic price of the outward-bound leg of the journey with Ryanair on either November 17th or 18th increased by 500 per cent between 12. 45pm and 1.30pm today, 20 minutes after the Irish team's fate was confirmed.
The basis cost of a Ryanair flight from Dublin to Beauvais, which has a price tag of €4.99 on Friday November 20th, costs €124.99 on the Wednesday morning of the crunch match.
Flying with Aer Lingus, meanwhile costs even more with the outward leg on the morning of the match currently priced at €164.99. If you were to fly to Paris with the airline two days later, however, the flight would cost €24.99 while the homeward journey 24 hours later costs nothing at all.
Fine Gael's sport spokesman John O'Mahony condemned the airlines and said football fans would "rightfully feel aggrieved by this obvious and unjustifiable rip-off".
He claimed that the prices were "off the wall" and said that while people expected there to be some increase in airline prices for such a high profile game "cashing-in to this extent is ridiculous."
An Aer Lingus spokeswoman defended the prices and said it came down to supply and demand. “There is a huge demand for the tickets and we have over 2000 seats on the day to and from Paris. “
She said the airline had added an extra flight to its schedule on the day of the match to cater for the "incredible" interest from Irish football fans.
Ryanair also said it would operate extra flights for the Paris match. It confirmed that all seats on its extra flights would be "at least €20 cheaper than Aer Lingus" and it warned that the seats would be "snapped up fast".
"All of Ryanair’s flights to Paris were blocked off at fares of €150 one way prior to the draw, which was still cheaper than Aer Lingus’ fare of €165 one way," the airline's head of communications Stephen McNamara said. "In response to the surge in booking since lunchtime, Ryanair has added extra flights and slashed fares to €125 one way”.
