10M SUMMER 2026 SEATS ON SALE

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (Fri, 26 Dec) launched its biggest ever seat sale with over 10 million Summer 2026 seats on offer at big discounts for early bookers.

What better way to beat the post-Christmas blues than by planning your Summer 2026 holiday across Ryanair’s industry leading network of over 235 destinations, including top sunshine hotspots like Corfu, Faro, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Malaga, Malta, Palermo, Palma, Rhodes, Santorini, and Tenerife, as well as exciting city breaks to Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Dubrovnik, Lisbon, Madrid, Milan, Pisa, Paris, Valencia, and Rome.

Ryanair’s biggest ever seat sale (10m Summer 2026 seats) will sell out fast, so make sure to book your Summer 2026 holiday via the Ryanair App now to snap up some bargain fares before prices rise in the new year.

Ryanair’s Dara Brady said:

“Now that Christmas is over, it’s time to look forward to your Summer 2026 holidays. Whether you’re seeking sun, sea, city or all the above, Ryanair’s Summer 2026 sale – our biggest ever sale with 10m discount seats on offer – delivers incredible value across Ryanair’s more than 235 destinations, including top sunshine hotspots like Alicante, Corfu, Faro, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Malaga, Malta, Palermo, Palma, Rhodes, Santorini, and Tenerife, as well as exciting city break destinations, like Athens, Barcelona, Dubrovnik, Lisbon, Madrid, Milan, Pisa, Paris, Valencia, and Rome. These bargain fares will sell out fast, so make sure you book your Summer 2026 holiday today via the Ryanair App or website.”

MILAN COURT IN 2024 ALREADY DECLARED RYANAIR’S DIRECT DISTRIBUTION “UNDOUBTEDLY BENEFITS CONSUMERS”.

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (Tues, 23 Dec) instructed its lawyers to immediately appeal both the bizarre/unsound ruling and the €256m fine, unjustly levied by the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM), which seeks to ignore – and overturn – the Jan 2024 Precedent Ruling of the Milan Court, which declared that Ryanair’s direct distribution model “undoubtedly benefits consumers” and leads to “competitive fares”. Today’s Ruling validates Ryanair’s current distribution agreements, which guarantee price transparency for consumers, and safeguards the continuing availability of the lowest promotional fares on ryanair.com. The AGCM’s baseless efforts to redefine a period of time after the Milan Court Ruling, and to wrongly claim that Ryanair has a dominant position in air services to/from Italy will be overturned. This Ruling and fine are legally unsound, and will be overturned on appeal.

Ryanair has campaigned for many years to offer consumers the lowest fares by booking directly on the ryanair.com website. This direct distribution model was ruled to “undoubtedly benefits consumers” by the Milan Court, as recently as Jan 2024. However, under pressure from a Spanish OTA (which has repeatedly overcharged unsuspecting consumers), and a tiny number of bricks and mortar travel agents in Italy, the AGCM has today issued a Ruling (and this absurd fine), which flies in the face of the Jan 2024 Milan Court Ruling.

In order to invent this legally unsound Ruling, the AGCM has ignored the fact of Ryanair’s non-dominant (just over 30%) share of the Italian market, by gerrymandering to exclude both long haul air travel, and short haul air access to a number of other countries, so that it could invent this claim that Ryanair holds a dominant position in the Italian air travel market. It also seeks to exclude competing rail, bus, ferry and motorway travel from the market definition, in what is clearly an invented, but untenable market definition.

The AGCM Ruling appears to accept that Ryanair’s current approved OTA and Travel Agent Direct agreements, which allow all OTAs and bricks and mortar travel agents “cost free” unfettered access to Ryanair’s airfares (with the sole exception of Ryanair’s promotional fares) as long as they agree not to overcharge consumers when selling Ryanair’s fares and ancillary services, comply with competition law. Nevertheless, this contorted ruling and its absurd fine flies in the face of the Milan Court decision of Jan 2024, and can only be the product of a biased and unsound analysis of Ryanair’s pro-consumer pricing in every market in Italy in which Ryanair operates.

Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said:

“If today’s legally unsound AGCM Ruling and fine is not appealed, then the AGCM proposes to set itself above the Milan Courts in making competition decisions. Ryanair has fought for many years for transparent pricing, and our approved OTA agreements (which have been agreed by almost every large OTA, with the notable exception of one Spanish OTA, who continues to overcharge its customers for flights and ancillary services) are manifestly and clearly pro-consumer.

When Ryanair first started in 1985, 20% of ticket revenues were wasted paying travel agents 10% commissions, and GDS systems 10% commissions, in an industry with high fares, but profit margins of less than 1%. The internet and the ryanair.com website have enabled Ryanair to distribute directly to consumers, and Ryanair has passed on these 20% cost savings in the form of the lowest air fares in Italy and Europe. Today’s AGCM ruling is both legally unsound, and it contradicts the Precedent Milan Court Ruling of January 2024, which declared that Ryanair’s direct distribution model “undoubtedly benefits consumers”.

This AGCM Ruling is an affront to the Precedent Milan Court Ruling, and also an affront to consumer protection and competition law. Ryanair has grown rapidly in Italy – and in many other markets across Europe – by always offering the lowest air fares in every single market in which we operate. This legally baseless AGCM Ruling, and its absurd €256m fine, undermines consumer protection and competition law, and it will be overturned on appeal.

The AGCM should have followed the Jan 2024 Precedent Ruling of the Milan Court, which ruled that Ryanair’s direct distribution model

• “undoubtedly benefit[s] consumers” by leading to lower fares
• is “economically justified in terms of containing operating costs, and eliminating the costs associated with  intermediation in ticket sales”
• “contribute[s] to…a direct channel of communication…for any possible need for information and updates on flights”.

Ryanair looks forward to successfully overturning this legally flawed ruling and its absurd €256m fine in the Courts. Today’s Ruling shows that the AGCM cannot be trusted to protect consumers, or uphold competition law, when it can be so easily misled by a tiny number of self-serving bricks & mortar travel agents and a Spanish OTA, making false claims. It is these OTAs and travel agents that the AGCM should be protecting consumers from. Today’s AGCM Ruling cannot ignore, and must respect the Precedent Jan 2024 Ruling of the Milan Court, and the pro-consumer behaviour of Ryanair in every market in Italy in which we operate. Both we and our lawyers, are confident that this flawed, gerrymandered AGCM ruling and its absurd €256m fine will be overturned on appeal.”

ENDS

Note to Editors

Please find below background Note to Editors, summarizing Ryanair’s distribution model and the Jan 2024 Milan Court Ruling.

1.  When Ryanair first opened its Ryanair.com website in 1999, it guaranteed consumers that its lowest fares would only be available on its website because the internet allowed Ryanair to save costs of GDS distribution and travel agency commissions (approx. 20% of each fare), which Ryanair then passed back to customers in lower fares when they booked direct on its website.

2.  Online travel agents (OTAs) and price comparison websites emerged in the early 2000s, Ryanair offered all such agents a price comparison licence agreement which would give them access to the Ryanair.com website as long as they agreed to present real Ryanair prices.

3.  As the internet developed, the OTAs developed new techniques to “scrape” content from Ryanair.com (despite the fact that this unauthorised scraping was in breach of Ryanair’s Ts&Cs), resell Ryanair tickets and overcharge consumers. Since the 2000s, Ryanair introduced a series of security measures to prevent OTAs from overcharging Ryanair customers. However, none of these measures were successful in the long term as OTAs switched to using “burner IP addresses”, virtual credit cards and more recently PayPal in China to circumvent payment security rules, and started using fake email addresses, which prevented Ryanair from communicating directly with the customer to give them flight updates, or in some cases (during Covid) refunds.

4.  While this cat and mouse game was played out between Ryanair and these overcharging OTAs, unsuspecting customers were often charged hidden handling fees. In other examples, the OTAs overcharged consumers for Ryanair ancillary services such as bag fees, priority boarding and seat selection.  To this day Ryanair publishes a monthly survey of this overcharging by OTAs proving real consumer harm.

5.  All of these issues were considered in detail by the Milan Court of Appeal (in combined cases taken by Lastminute and Viaggiare) – see summary of judgment below.

6.  Since January 2024 Ryanair has entered into numerous “approved OTA agreements” under which Ryanair gives direct access to its website to OTAs who agree not to screenscrape Ryanair.com and to present true Ryanair prices for fares and ancillary services to consumers, with no hidden add-ons. The OTAs and agents are free to charge the customer a transparent agency fee if they so wish or to offer discounts. The same access to Ryanair’s fares inventory is available to traditional travel agents under Ryanair’s Travel Agent Direct platform and through traditional Global Distribution Systems.

On 17 Jan 2024, the Milan Court of Appeal ruled as follows in Lastminute/Viaggiare vs. Ryanair:

1.  Ryanair’s decision to reserve the sale of its air services to itself does not constitute abuse of a dominant position.

2.  The Court holds that there is no abuse of a dominant position by Ryanair on the downstream market of travel and tourism services having reserved for itself the direct sale of its airline tickets.

3.  It has been shown that Ryanair’s choice of reserving for itself the sale of its airline tickets, does not deprive, nor has it deprived, the OTA of access to a resource considered essential to carry out the OTA’s business.

4.  Ryanair sells “only” its airline tickets, and does not sell tickets of other carriers. OTAs on the other hand broker the sale of airline tickets from all airlines and other modes of transport (railways, buses, ferries, cruise ships, etc.).

5.  It is undisputed among the parties that through the payment of a token price licence, the OTAs can access and compare Ryanair’s price and flight schedules. Thus, there is no evidence of “refusal” to provide such information.

6.  As for the risk of eliminating competition, the Court notes that taking into account the different scope in which OTAs and Ryanair operate, predominantly in the downstream market (for the sale of non-aviation services), the likely occurrence of such an event should be ruled out.

7.  The OTA has asserted that the sale of airline tickets is the main driver of OTAs’ revenues. This assertion is incorrect when referring to OTAs in general, for which the booking of hotels and other accommodation appear significantly more important than the sale of airline tickets and are considered to be the real driver of their business.

8.  Ryanair’s entrepreneurial choice to sell its airline tickets directly is “economically justified” in terms of reasonableness, in terms of containing operating costs, and eliminating the costs associated with distribution in ticket sales. This has contributed to the application of competitive fares, which undoubtedly benefits consumers, and to the possibility of having direct channels of communication with them for any possible need for information and updates on flights.  No harm to users therefore was established by the investigation conducted.

-1M SEATS, -5 AIRCRAFT, -20 ROUTES & THOUSANDS OF JOBS AT RISK

Ryanair, Europe’s No. 1 airline, today (Tues, 9 Dec) announced it will cut -1m seats (-22%), 5 based aircraft (loss of US$500m investment), and 20 routes from its Brussels Winter 26/27 schedule as a result of the Belgian Govt’s backward decision to double its harmful aviation tax to €10 per departing passenger from 2027, and the Charleroi city council’s proposal to introduce a  €3 per departing passenger tax from next year on passengers travelling from the airport. This significant increase to access costs – which was already hiked up +150% in July (just 5 months ago) – makes Belgium completely uncompetitive compared to other EU markets like Sweden, Hungary, Italy, and Slovakia, where Govts are abolishing aviation taxes to drive traffic, tourism, and jobs. Even Germany has now recognised that aviation taxes don’t work and has revised its decision to increase aviation taxes.

If the Govt really wants to revive Belgium’s economy, they should abolish this harmful aviation tax to generate more traffic and tourism, not double it. Ryanair calls again on Prime Minister De Wever and his Govt to abolish the aviation tax or Belgian traffic will collapse and fares will soar, just as they have done in Austria & Germany, where Govt’s repeatedly increased access costs. Ryanair has today (Tues, 9 Dec) written to Prime Minister De Wever, Transport Minister Crucke, Wallonia Minister of Airports, Cécile Neven, and the Mayor of Charleroi, Thomas Dermine, to call for the reversal of these increases.

Ryanair’s Jason McGuinness said:

“The De Wever Govt has bizarrely decided to further increase Belgium’s already sky-high aviation tax by another +100% from Jan 2027, on top of the +150% in July last. These repeated increases to this harmful aviation tax make Belgium completely uncompetitive compared to the many other EU countries, like Sweden, Hungary, Italy, and Slovakia, where Govts are abolishing aviation taxes to drive traffic, tourism, and jobs. As a result of this second tax hike in just 5 months, Ryanair has been forced to cut -22% of its Brussels traffic (-1m seats), -5 aircraft from our Charleroi base (loss of US$500m investment), and 20 routes (13 from Charleroi & 7 from Zaventem) for Winter 26/27. Should the Charleroi city council proceed with its ill-judged proposal to introduce further taxes on passengers departing from Charleroi next year, these cuts will deepen as Ryanair will be forced to reduce flights, routes and based aircraft at Charleroi from as early as April 2026 with thousands of local jobs at risk.

If Prime Minister De Wever and his Govt really wanted to revive Belgium’s economy, they should abolish this harmful aviation tax, not double it. Despite so many other EU countries taking this step to support their economies, Belgium is going in the opposite direction, driving up access costs and pushing airlines and tourism elsewhere. We urge Prime Minister De Wever to scrap this damaging aviation tax before Belgian’s traffic, tourism, jobs, and the wider economy collapse any further. Furthermore, the Charleroi city council needs to abandon its lunatic plans to increase taxes driving job losses with the effect of lowering payroll, VAT and corporate tax receipts for the local economy.”

US$600M INVESTMENT, 15% GROWTH, 3 NEW ROUTES

Ryanair, the UK’s No.1 low fares airline, today (Thurs, 4 Dec) announced a sixth based aircraft at Liverpool John Lennon Airport for Summer 2026, representing a US$600m investment from Ryanair in the Northwest. This additional aircraft will deliver +250,000 additional seats (+15% growth), 3 exciting new routes to Marrakesh, Tirana, and Warsaw, and extra flights on 11 popular existing routes to Alicante, Barcelona, Faro, Ibiza, Kaunas, Kraków, Malaga, Malta, Porto, Reus, and Sofia. Ryanair’s record Summer 2026 schedule offers customers in Liverpool and the Northwest even more choice at Europe’s lowest fares whilst also supporting over 2,000 local jobs.

Ryanair’s Liverpool Summer 2026 schedule will deliver:

• 34 routes, incl. 3 new routes to Marrakesh, Tirana, & Warsaw
• 6 based aircraft (+1 vs. S25 – US$600m investment in Liverpool)
• Increased freq. on 11 routes
• 2m seats incl. +250,000 (+15%) additional seats
• Liverpool traffic grows to over 2.4m passengers p.a.

To celebrate Ryanair’s sixth aircraft and 3 new routes at Liverpool in Summer 2026, the airline has launched a limited time seat sale with fares from £29.99 available only at Ryanair.com.

Ryanair’s CCO, Jason McGuinness said:

“We are delighted to be in Liverpool today to celebrate more Ryanair investment and record growth for the Northwest, with the announcement of a sixth Ryanair aircraft at Liverpool for Summer 2026 as well as 3 new routes to Marrakesh, Tirana, and Warsaw. Ryanair will also add extra flights on existing popular sun and city break routes, like Alicante, Barcelona, Faro, Ibiza & Kraków, driving 2026 traffic above 2.4m passengers p.a.

Ryanair’s supercharged investment and growth at Liverpool (US$600m) will deliver more than 2m low-fare seats to 34 European destinations, offering customers in the Northwest more choice at the lowest fares in Europe, while simultaneously driving inbound tourism. While Ryanair is growing at Liverpool next Summer, other regional airports across the UK are being hamstrung by Rachel Reeves idiotic decision to increase APD. If the UK Govt is serious about delivering growth, they should abolish this penal and damaging APD tax, which makes the UK (particularly regional airports) uncompetitive compared to EU countries like Sweden, Hungary, Slovakia, and regional Italy, which are abolishing aviation taxes and lowering access costs to stimulate traffic, tourism, and jobs growth.

To celebrate Ryanair’s new aircraft and 3 new routes at Liverpool this Summer, we’ve launched a limited time seat sale with fares from £29.99 available only at Ryanair.com.”

Liverpool John Lennon Airport’s CEO, John Irving said:

“As our longest serving airline partner of nearly 40 years with around 40 million of their passengers having chosen to travel via Liverpool in that time, firstly I’d like to thank Ryanair for their continued support and for this latest commitment. This news highlights Liverpool John Lennon Airport’s strategic importance for the City Region and wider Northwest and North Wales and will bring more jobs, more investment and more choice for the region’s travellers as well as for those from overseas visiting the region via the airport too.

As 2025 draws to a close, on what has been one of Liverpool Airport’s busiest years ever, Ryanair’s decision to base a 6th aircraft at Liverpool in 2026 with an additional 250,000 seats on sale, is likely to help the airport go on to break all previous passenger records.”

Ryanair, Europe and Poland’s No.1 airline, today (Wed, 3 Dec) announced it will base a sixth aircraft in Gdańsk for Summer 2026, representing a US$600m investment from Ryanair in Pomerania. This additional aircraft will deliver +300,000 additional seats (+16% growth), 5 exciting new routes to Rome, Dubrovnik, Tirana, Palermo and Bucharest and extra flights on 17 existing popular routes to Alicante, Barcelona, Malaga and Malta. Ryanair’s record Gdańsk Summer 2026 schedule will deliver 2.3m seats across 43 routes, offering customers in the Pomeranian Voivodeship even more choice at Europe’s lowest fares.

Ryanair’s Gdańsk S26 schedule will deliver:

• A record 43 routes, incl. 5 new routes to Bucharest, Dubrovnik, Palermo, Rome & Tirana
• 6 based aircraft (+1 vs. S25 – US$600m investment)
• Increased freq. on 17 routes – incl. Alicante, Barcelona, Malaga and Malta
• 2.3m seats incl. 300,000 (+16%) additional seats
• Gdańsk traffic grows to over 3.3m seats p.a.

To celebrate Ryanair’s sixth aircraft and 5 new routes in Gdańsk next Summer, Ryanair launched a limited-time seat sale with fares available from PLN 120, only at www.ryanair.com.

Ryanair’s Chief Commercial Officer, Jason McGuinness, said:

“We are delighted to celebrate the news that Ryanair will base a sixth aircraft in Gdańsk for Summer 2026 alongside the announcement of 5 new routes to Bucharest, Dubrovnik, Palermo, Rome & Tirana, in addition to extra flights to 17 popular sun and city destinations such as Alicante, Barcelona, Malaga and Malta. Next Summer, Ryanair’s US$600m investment in the Pomeranian Voivodeship will deliver more than 2.3m low-fare seats from Gdańsk to a record 43 European destinations.

Ryanair’s 6 based aircraft and US$600m investment in Gdańsk is a clear commitment to growing Poland’s regional connectivity. Next Summer, Gdańsk will benefit from +300,000 (+16%) additional seats and 5 new routes with Europe and Poland’s biggest airline, driving inbound tourism to Pomerania and supporting year-round international connectivity at Europe’s lowest fares.

To celebrate Ryanair’s biggest ever schedule and 5 new routes at Gdańsk next Summer, we’ve launched a 2-day seat sale with fares from just PLN 120 available only at Ryanair.com.”

Tomasz Kloskowski, CEO of Gdańsk Airport, added:

“Ryanair’s decision to grow its Gdańsk base with a 6th aircraft and launch exciting new routes for Spring 2026 is a direct result of our long-standing, excellent cooperation and a clear signal of our airport’s rising importance in the region and across Poland. We are delighted that this investment will give passengers from Pomerania even greater choice, while allowing us – together with our partner Ryanair – to continue expanding our route network and strengthen our position as one of Poland’s fastest-growing airports.”

Ryanair, Europe, and Italy’s No. 1 airline, today (Fri, 28^th Nov) announced record Winter 2025 and Summer 2026 schedules for Pescara Airport, including 2 year-round based aircraft (for the first time ever during the Winter season), representing a US$200m investment in the region. This record investment from Ryanair will deliver more than 1.3 million passengers p.a. (+80% growth since the Mun Tax was scrapped) to Pescara, further demonstrating how President Marsilio’s removal of the Municipal Tax continues to fuel year-round growth, connectivity, tourism and economic growth in the Abruzzo Region.

Ryanair’s record W25 and S26 schedules to Pescara will deliver:

• 2 based aircraft – US$200m tot. invest.
• W25: 14 routes, 8 new: Cagliari, Milan Malpensa, Kaunas, Krakow, Trapani-Marsala, Turin, Valencia, and Wroclaw.
• S26: 21 routes, 1 new: Tirana & 1 reinstated: Milan Bergamo.
• Over 1.3m passengers p.a. (+80% vs 2024).
• Supp. over 1,000 jobs in the Abruzzo Region, incl. over 60 well paid pilots & crew.

Pescara Airport and the Abruzzo Region have become significantly more competitive and attractive for investment thanks to President Marsilio’s forward-thinking decision to scrap the Municipal Tax. Abruzzo was the third Italian region to scrap this regressive tax and since then, Ryanair has responded by adding one new aircraft (incremental +US$100m invest.), +80% traffic growth and supporting over 1,000 jobs – delivering more year-round connectivity at Europe’s lowest fares for the citizens of Abruzzo. However, if the rest of Italy wants to remain competitive compared to competing European countries such as Albania, Sweden and Slovakia which are actively reducing access costs, the Italian Government must abolish the Municipal Tax at all Italian airports to stimulate traffic, tourism, and job growth nationwide.

To celebrate this record growth in Pescara, Ryanair has launched a 3-day seat sale with fares from €34.99 to travel until the end of June, available from today for booking only at ryanair.com.

From Pescara, Ryanair’s Chief Commercial Officer, Jason McGuinness, said:

“As Italy’s No.1 airline, Ryanair is delighted to announce another year of record growth and investment at Pescara Airport – which is a direct result of President Marsilio’s move to abolish the punitive Municipal Tax in 2025. This strategic decision has allowed Ryanair to grow traffic to more than 1.3m annual passengers (+80% versus 2024) and unlock the Abruzzo Region’s full year-round potential. As part of this continuous growth, we are pleased to unveil our record Winter 2025 and Summer 2026 schedules today – delivering ever more domestic and international routes across both seasons, making it easier than ever for passengers to access Abruzzo’s stunning coastline and mountains, vibrant cities, and unique cultural heritage.

Today’s announcement demonstrates the transformative growth Ryanair can deliver to airports and regions that lower access costs. This move has unlocked year-round growth, delivering enhanced low-fare travel options, boosting inbound tourism, and supporting more than 1,000 jobs across the Abruzzo Region. However, it’s time for the Italian Government to accelerate traffic growth and increase competitiveness at all Italian airports.

Ryanair, therefore, calls on the Italian Government to scrap the Municipal Tax nationwide. Removing this unnecessary charge would enable Ryanair to deliver an additional 20 million passengers annually, 40 more aircraft worth $4bn, 15,000 new Ryanair jobs and over 250 new routes which would drive year-round tourism, investment, and employment across all of Italy.”

Abruzzo’s Region President, Marco Marsilio, said:

The equation of lower taxes plus more passengers works, and the results are evident. In Saga’s business plan, the goal of surpassing one million passengers was set for 2026, but we have brought it forward, and next year the number of passengers will be further increased. I see a lively airport; there is enthusiasm among the staff, and this is a source of pride for everyone. I hope that this significant growth serves as an incentive for other carriers, because this is an efficient, functional, and cost-effective airport. The new challenge is to improve the infrastructure to accommodate the arrival of more passengers with the new flights.”

Giorgio Fraccastoro, SAGA (Abruzzo Airport) President, said:

“With the achievement of one million passengers, which we wanted to celebrate by symbolically honoring a traveler, a new phase has begun for Abruzzo Airport, generating an increasingly significant impact for the entire regional territory. This has been made possible thanks to the synergy established with Ryanair and the Region. We are experiencing the busiest winter season ever for the airport, and the summer season will further increase last year’s already record numbers, with destinations being strengthened and frequencies increased in light of the excellent results achieved. The hope is that this relationship with the airline will grow stronger every day and that new routes, part of the airport users’ wishlist, can also be opened.”

To celebrate the milestone of one million passengers at the airport, the President of the Abruzzo Region, Marco Marsilio, the President of Saga, Giorgio Fraccastoro, and Ryanair’s Chief Commercial Officer, Jason McGuinness, presented a Ryanair gift card and two vouchers for experiences in Abruzzo, provided by Il Bosso and Majellando, to Gaia from Tuscany and Lorenzo from Marche, two passengers transiting through the airport on their way to Brussels.