Ryanair offers one million flights from just £5 in flash sale
Ryanair is offering fares from as little as £5, in a 48-hour seat sale today and tomorrow. The bargain giveaway is available across 1 million seats, with destinations including Barcelona, Milan and Bordeaux.
You'll have to travel light, as the £5 fares include hand baggage only.
To avail of a 10kg cabin bag allowance, you must upgrade to a 'Regular' fare – which of course comes at a premium (around £22 extra, each way). For example, flying from Stansted to Thessaloniki, Greece, on September 8 costs just £5 one-way for hand baggage only; or £27.85 with hold luggage.
Departure airports include London Stansted, Gatwick, Luton and Southend, as well as regional Ryanair hubs across the UK – such as Birmingham, Belfast and Bristol. Ryanir currently services 240 destinations.
There are, however, a few caveats. The fares are only available for trips taken in September and October, so can only be used for a relatively last-minute trip. And of course, the sale is only live for 48 hours, so flights must be booked before midnight on Wednesday September 2.
It is also essential to note that most destinations included in the sale would currently require passengers to quarantine for two weeks on their return to UK soil. There are a few exceptions – such as Greece (Corfu, Kefalonia, Thessaloniki, Athens), Hungary (Budapest) and Germany (Berlin and Dusseldorf).
The Irish carrier's CEO Michael O'Leary has been vocal about his disdain for the UK's current quarantine restrictions, stating in July when Ryanair relauched its post-lockdown flights:
"It’s quite clear that British families going on holidays have decided, one, either the quarantine will be removed before they come home, or two, they will fill in the form and then just go about their normal lives [on return]. I don’t think anyone is going to pay any attention to the form-filling exercise."
He has since added in regards to ongoing government talks: “Ryanair gave up on going on the Department for Transport [conference] calls. Complete waste of time. They have no idea what they are talking about.
“None of [the quarantine or air bridge plans] is science-based.”
Last month, Ryanair was forced to slashed flight capacity by a fifth for September and October after demand was hammered by a surge in coronavirus cases across Europe.
The airline has once again called for proper Covid testing to take place at airports alongside an effective tracing system, saying it is the only safe way to bring back travel within the European Union while still keeping Covid under control.
