'If we wanted to price gouge, we would add one or two flights' - Michael O'Leary defends 700 Prague flights for Ireland qualifier

"We have a daily flight to Prague, during the draw, all the remaining seats on those flights on the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday were all sold out. So before the draw was even concluded yesterday, we're completely full on our daily flight to Prague. What do we do? We added, within an hour of the draw yesterday, we had an extra 15 flights going out to Prague and returning from Prague on that week. Now the reality of those flights is the returns are empty."

"So, while the prices are more expensive than we would normally charge, if we really wanted to price gouge people, we would have added one or two extra flights. We added fifteen extra flights. Fares are available on those flights between 300 and 400 euros each way. The return fare would be between 600 and 700 euros, but that has to cover the cost of the empty flights coming the other way,"

Ryanair added 15 extra flights to Prague within an hour after the draw because the daily flights were sold out. The added flights left largely empty return legs, increasing the airline's per-passenger operating cost. Fares on those extra services are roughly €300–400 each way, producing return fares of about €600–700, with some advertised returns between €650 and €900. A senator described the rapid price increases as cynical and called for a review of airline pricing through the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission. The airline framed the increases as a necessary response to empty returns, not deliberate gouging.

Read at Irish Independent