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Thousands of people seem willing to ignore advice not to fly to Ireland over the Christmas period, despite dire warnings over the weekend that international travel in the coming weeks will be a “recipe for disaster.”
Airlines have drastically reduced the number of flights scheduled to arrive in Ireland from now until the end of the year due to the Covid-19 crisis, but there are some signs that demand is increasing earlier than is usually one of the periods of busiest trip of the year.
With just under six weeks to go on Christmas Day, more than 1,300 seats have already been booked with Ryanair and Aer Lingus on just two routes from London airports in the days leading up to December 25.
As of Sunday afternoon, 684 passengers had paid for pre-booked seats on Aer Lingus planes departing London Heathrow for Dublin between December 19 and Christmas Eve.
While there was still availability on most of their flights during the period, with one-way prices ranging from less than € 100 to more than € 200, a flight on December 20 only had premium seats available, with tickets costing more than € 500.
Meanwhile, 536 people had reserved seats in advance on Ryanair flights in the five days leading up to Christmas, with one-way fares ranging from around € 40 to around € 100.
Pre-reservation of seats is not a requirement for Aer Lingus or Ryanair flights, so the number already reserved for travel on both routes is likely to be substantially higher than the first indications suggest.
Although the routes from the two London airports to Dublin are among the busiest, they only account for a small percentage of arrivals at Irish airports, suggesting that the number of arrivals from overseas up until Christmas Eve could be considerable .
However, they will not come close to the figures recorded last year, when almost 1.2 million people arrived and departed from Dublin Airport during the holiday period. Last December 20, a Friday, was the busiest day before Christmas, with more than 90,000 passengers entering and leaving both terminals.
Reserves ‘weaker than usual’
A Ryanair spokeswoman said the airline was operating only 40 percent of its normal winter hours this year. He said term bookings through December “are weaker than usual” due to lockdowns in Ireland and the UK.
She said that Ryanair anticipates that “many people will be traveling home for Christmas, both to Ireland and from Ireland, and will do so by taking advantage of the rules of the EU ‘Traffic Light’ Scheme, which allows people to get a negative Covid test within 72 hours after your departure date, and then not having to quarantine after arrival. “
An Aer Lingus spokeswoman said that while the airline operated “very short hours”, some “additional capacity has been added on some key routes such as Dublin-London Heathrow during the Christmas period.”
Speaking on RTÉ Radio One, Dr. Gabriel Scally, a public health expert, said he didn’t think Christmas trips “were worth it if people touch it correctly and isolate itself properly two weeks in advance … that’s not it. a great Christmas.
“So I really don’t think travel should be on the agenda this Christmas and I hope people stick to that because we know that this virus travels very well, and that people go in and out of countries and through airports and all the other travel involved is a recipe for disaster, ”added Dr. Scally.
Medical director Dr. Tony Holohan has also urged those living abroad not to travel home for Christmas, ruling it out even on compassionate grounds, while Tánaiste Leo Varadkar advised people not to book flights “for the time being. “due to the uncertainty caused by the pandemic.
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