AIRFARES:IRELAND'S POLISH community will be particularly hard hit when budget airlines tighten their belts for the long winter ahead.
Ryanair's final flight to Warsaw is on Saturday, October 25th. In June the company announced it was cutting about 150 flights from Dublin for the winter, including its daily route to the Polish capital.
The company blames high costs at Dublin Airport for the move - a claim Dublin Airport Authority denies - and says its Polish routes have become unviable since Polish air-traffic control increased its charges.
Lilianna Golinowska, who works for Google in Dublin, flies home to Warsaw "about once every two months", which she says is fairly typical of Poles she knows here. "With Ryanair you could fly in the afternoon on Friday and come back late on Sunday evening, whereas with Aer Lingus you have to fly early on Friday morning, which means having to take a day off work."
She discovered Ryanair was cancelling the route in June. "I had originally booked my flight for Christmas with Ryanair, but then I got an e-mail from them saying they were cancelling the route, so I immediately booked with Aer Lingus."
Demand for Christmas flights is strong; Aer Lingus returns cost about €500. "I know some people who are travelling home by ferry and train rather than paying all that money."
Ryanair says it has no plans to reopen the route over Christmas and will review all its schedules in February or March.