Summer holiday warning – plane fares set to rise again this summer

FLIGHTS are about to go up in price again, in another blow for British holidaymakers.

The price of a plane ticket might jump by close to 10 per cent this summer after two years of heavy travel restrictions.

The boss of Wizz Air said tickets are already more expensive now than they were in the year before the pandemic struck.

Jozsef Varadi expects this to increase even further, to "upper single digits" in the company's second quarter, which runs between July and September.

"Our bookings are showing strong performance in the first fiscal quarter, with average fares trending higher at low single digits versus [the] same period in F20 [financial year ending March 2020]," he said.

"For fiscal quarter two, we expect fares in the upper single digits ahead of the equivalent period F20."

This could see fares rise by close to 10 per cent, although the company did not reveal any more detailed assessment of where they are likely to go.

Wizz Air also warned shareholders that recent disruption at airports will probably lead to the airline making an operating loss in the first quarter of its financial year.

"Shortages of staff in air traffic control, security and other parts of the supply chain are impacting airlines, our employees and our customers directly," Mr Varadi said.

He added: "We see strong consumer demand for summer, but expect an operating loss for the first quarter of F23.

"The airline industry remains exposed to externalities such as air traffic control disruption and continuing operational issues within the airports sector, adding to a volatile macro environment."

Other experts have agreed that flights won't be getting cheaper any time soon.

Travel expert Eoghan Corry has warned how the long term effects of the Ukraine war will affect prices of flights for passengers.

Eoghan told  that there will be two obvious effects on travel costs in the medium term: "The first is fuel prices because it doesn’t look like it’s stopping and it’s going up."

He explained that "avoiding Russian airspace" will mean flights to destinations like Thailand will take much longer.

He added: ";They will both impact ticket prices.”

Wizz Air has also revealed the six ways to find cheaper fares this summer.