Air travel is a luxury that is likely to become increasingly inaccessible in the near future! The reason? This is what Michael O’Leary, the head of Ryanair, asserted at a press conference in Brussels, on Tuesday, October 20.
“You are going to see airfares rise next year in Europe, I think by 10, 15, perhaps 20%,” he said, going so far as to speak of “the strongest rise in airfares in Europe’s history over the next 12 months,” reports EuroNews.
And why again! The rise in the price of kerosene, the main fuel used in civil aviation.
“Over the recent period, the price of kerosene has varied from 600 euros/tonne before the conflict to more than 1,500 euros/tonne,” the National Federation of Aviation and its Trades (FNAM) said in mid-October, noting that this “brutal cost increase has very real consequences for air carriers and jeopardizes, for some, their financial viability in the near term.”
The Passenger Air Transport Price Index published by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) illustrates this well. Between September 2025 and September 2026, the price of a ticket departing from France rose by +10.6%.
“This increase is mainly driven by the international network (+ 12.1%), while prices rise more modestly on the domestic network (+ 3.7%), both on domestic routes and to the overseas departments (DROM).”
Prices are falling toward Australia, Thailand, and Europe
Another factor that could undermine the aviation sector’s economy: the end of hedging, i.e., the financial hedging of some airlines, which translates into buying fuel in advance at a price fixed before the current crisis.
But in 2027, when stockpiles are exhausted, they will have to open their wallets again and buy at the current price, which will be passed on to ticket prices. Finally, the decrease in the number of seats also comes into play.
In other words, this is a reduction in supply caused by the bankruptcy or financial difficulties of certain airlines, forced to cut routes.
This is notably the case of Ryanair, which announced, through Michael O’Leary, the removal of 20 routes and 1.1 million seats from its winter schedule in Belgium, a country where the air passenger tax will rise from 5 to 7 euros per passenger starting January 1, 2027.
However, not everything is lost for 2027. Skyscanner, the famous flight comparison site, has recently published a list of ten destinations “where air ticket prices have fallen sharply in one year” and where accommodation remains affordable.
In first place, Tuzla, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, “with a price drop of 73% on flights and a 40% drop in hotel rates.” Podgorica, in Montenegro, and Ouarzazate, in Morocco, complete the podium with respective decreases of -42% and -40% on airfares.
If Europe is omnipresent on the list with no fewer than seven destinations, including Italy and Greece, it is still possible to travel farther and cheaper.
Thus, Skyscanner indicates that flight prices to Krabi, Thailand, “fell by 27%,” and those to Melbourne, Australia, fell by 18%.
