Unveiling its winter timetable in London on Wednesday, Ryanair mapped out how it is handling pricier jet fuel and softer demand during the slower months. The airline's schedule includes 435 routes and more than 20 new UK routes, with three new destinations out of Stansted and 18 from other UK airports.
Michael O'Leary said the carrier will continue to reduce some winter frequencies to steer clear of unhedged fuel risk and will also reallocate capacity toward lower-fee markets such as Italy and Scandinavia. The company has already cut its annual passenger goal for the fiscal year and expects to put fewer seats on sale during the lull. He also noted last week that fares have started to turn higher after months of declines, with ticket prices slightly up from August.
Many airlines are being pinched by rising jet-fuel prices and softer consumer demand, prompting fare discounts to maintain load factors. O'Leary expects industrywide pullbacks, saying, "Everybody's going to cut capacity this winter because we are all much more exposed to oil this winter and into the summer of '27 than we were into summer '26."
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O'Leary renewed his attack on UK "visitor taxes," arguing that other European countries are lowering such charges while the UK risks adding more. He said a proposal to let local governments tack on another hotel tax would further hit travel, calling it "stupid and doomed to fail." He also called out Martin Rolfe, head of National Air Traffic Services, following a string of UK air-traffic control disruptions that stopped flights nationwide. He said the latest outage hit Ryanair for £4 million to £5 million.
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