Ryanair has cancelled flights between Dublin airport and nine other airports over the next six weeks. The destinations affected are London Stansted, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Milan Bergamo, Paris Beauvais, Madrid, Brussels Zaventem and Brussels Charleroi. In Ireland, the cancelled flights only affect Dublin airport, with no cancellations at the regional airports of Cork, Shannon, Knock, and Kerry. Normal service will resume on October 28th.
So if you can’t – or don’t wish to – fly with Ryanair until then, can you still get to the cancelled destinations?
The Irish Times has mapped out alternative travel options, and how much they would cost, booking weekend journeys in the middle of October.
London Stansted: Based in the north east of London, this is a busy airport, but only supports Ryanair flights from Dublin. If you really have to get to Stansted, then you will need to fly to London City Airport and take the train from Liverpool Street Station or the Terravision bus from Bishopsgate station, departing from the front of the station. The lowest return flights with Cityjet to London City Airport will cost €153 return, train fares are £28 (€32) return off peak, the bus is £24 (€27) return. You can also fly to London to airports at Heathrow, with British Airways and Aer Lingus, Gatwick with Aer Lingus, and London City Airport with British Airways and Cityjet.
Birmingham: Aer Lingus flies to Birmingham four times a day and you can get there from €46 return, aerlingus.com.
Manchester: Aer Lingus flies five times a day and fares are from €109 return.
Bristol: There are four flights a day from Aer Lingus from €70 return.
London and regional cities such as Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and most rail stations in Britain can be reached by using the Sail Rail services from Irish Ferries and Stena Line.
Fares with Stena Line are the lowest, and the ferry takes three-and-a-half hours from Dublin Port to Holyhead. Fares to Manchester are from €82, Birmingham from €84, London from €94 and Bristol from €88, stenaline.ie, 01-9075388.
The Swift service with Irish Ferries is under two hours for the Irish Sea crossing. The fares to Manchester are from €91, Birmingham from €93, London from €99 and Bristol from €95, irishferries.com, 0818 300400.
There is also the option of taking the Eurolines Bus from Busaras return to Manchester from €63 return, Birmingham from €63, London from €63 and Bristol from €73, eurolines.buseireann.ie, 01-7032573.
Milan Bergamo: This has become a very popular entry point for Verona and the lakes region of Italy. Aer Lingus flies to Milan Linate, the main airport from €184 return and Malpensa from €144 return. Train services in Italy are excellent and you can find a routing to the lakes on trenitalia.com.
Paris Beauvais: If this is your final destination then it is not so easy to get to. You will have to fly to either Charles de Gaulle Airport or Orly Airport. Air France costs from €138 return and Aer Lingus flights from €234 return to CDG. Transavia flights to Orly Airport are from €153 return from Dublin, transavia.com. Then take the train or bus to the city centre. There is a dedicated bus from Porte Maillot for Beauvais.
Madrid Iberia flies from Dublin four days a week from €227 return, and Aer Lingus has two flights a day to Madrid with prices from €189 return.
Brussels Zaventem This is the central airport in Brussels, and there are twice daily flights with Aer Lingus to the Belgian capital, with fares from €138 return.
Brussels Charleroi This is the secondary airport for the city and the one most used by Ryanair. To get here will mean taking a flight to the main Brussels airport, Zaventem, from €138 return and taking the train to Charleroi, see timetables on belgianrail.be/en/.
The full list of Ryanair cancellations are here.