Ryanair to give away two million free flights
A no-frills airline is giving away two million free seats, it announced today - despite travellers’ fears of flying on the anniversary of September 11.
Ryanair said passengers have just four days from midnight tonight to snap up the bonanza on any of its 131 European routes.
The two-month give-away would save passengers €142.5m in flight costs, the budget carrier said.
The announcement comes as figures suggested that airlines across the world scheduled 2,000 fewer services today than last Thursday because of fears of a terrorist attack, although the timing of the announcement was coincidental, Ryanair said.
Passengers would have to travel between September 23 and December 17 but only have until next Monday to take up the promotion.
The offer does not apply for a fortnight from October 17.
The free flights are available on any day of the week, but travellers would have to pay taxes and charges.
The Dublin-based carrier, which last month broke its passenger record by carrying 2,141,664 people, said the offer was the perfect opportunity for the public to “bum” their way across Europe for an autumn break.
Among the destinations waiting to be snapped up are Dublin, Milan, Glasgow, Venice, Strasbourg, Brussels-Charleroi and Stockholm.
Last month, Ryanair’s first quarter net profits climbed 12% to a record €43.8m.
But load factors, which measure passenger numbers as a proportion of the number of seats available, declined by five percentage points to 90% against August last year.
Michael Cawley, deputy chief executive, said: “In the past month, we have reached a new monthly passenger record of 2.14 million passengers in August.
“To celebrate with our passengers, we’re giving away two million free seats across our route network.
“This is the perfect opportunity for people to ‘bum’ their way for free across Europe on an autumn break.”
The seats can only be booked online at www.ryanair.com.
