The cost of flights to Prague for Ireland’s winner-takes-all World Cup playoff against Czechia next spring started to take off as soon as the draw was made.
Some flights sold out within minutes and the price of others soared to close to €1,000 for a return journey.
Hundreds of Irish football fans reacted quicker than Troy Parrott to a knocked-on header with all the seats on the early morning Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Prague on Thursday, March 26th – the day of the play-off – disappearing within minutes of the crunch encounter being confirmed.
Seats on the flight with the same airline leaving a day earlier were still available, although the price had jumped to almost €500 for the outward bound journey, with a similar price attached to flights home on the Friday.
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That means many round trips booked straight after the draw was made most likely cost travelling fans the guts of €1,000.
By contrast, flights to Prague on the same days the previous week are currently closer to €150.
By Thursday evening Aer Lingus had significantly increased capacity to Prague with five extra flights on the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of the week of the play-off. “This increase is already in place, and we expect services to be very busy during this period, a spokesman said.
Even on those additional flights prices remained high with each leg priced at between €368 and €428. Return flights to Prague a week early cost around €150, a reflection of the dramatic spike in demand.
Ryanair also flies to Prague, with flights on the Wednesday before the biggest day in Irish football for a generation climbing fast after the draw was made.
Within 90 minutes the cost of an outward bound flight had jumped to €326 while homeward bound flights on the Saturday were priced at between €278 and €354.
Ryanair said it was looking to add an additional 3,000 seats on the Dublin-Prague route the week of the play-off semi-final in order to cater for demand.
“We expect these extra seats to sell out fast, so don’t miss out,” spokeswoman Jade Kirwan said. There were seats available on Thursday evening but as with Aer Lingus the prices were high with the individual legs of the journey costing between €278 and more than €430.
Some canny Irish football fans were looking slightly further afield and checking out the prices of EasyJet flights from Belfast to Prague.
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An hour after the draw was made, flights from Belfast to Prague departing on the Tuesday before the Thursday night kick off were selling for £87 (€98) with return flights on the Saturday available for £116.
However, just 30 minutes later, the cost of the same flights had jumped sharply. The outward bound journey climbed to £186.50 (€212) with the homeward flight on the Saturday priced at £171.50 (€194.60).
A better option for many might be to fly via Munich which is 300km from Prague and easily accessible using public transport. At 2pm on Thursday, return flights from Dublin to Munich with Aer Lingus were available for just over €200 with return train tickets between the two cities costing around €50.
Given the level of interest in the game, ticket prices are almost certain to climb with all airlines in the hours and days ahead. However, the better news for Irish football fans is if the boys in green do make it past Czechia, the luck of the draw means they will be playing a home game against either North Macedonia or Denmark for a place in next summer’s World Cup finals.
An alternative route to Prague would see a fan travelling from Rosslare to the perhaps appropriately named Loon-Plage near Dunkirk. The ferry crossing takes almost a full day – although much of the night-time crossing would be spent sleeping. After that, a fan could drive the 1,011km to Prague, a journey that would take around 10 hours.
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A cabin that sleeps four on the ferry crossing on the Monday night before the game is currently priced at €425 while the cost of fuel for the 2,000km road trip across Europe will add an additional €250 to the bill.
The total cost of the journey then – not including snacks and food and the like – comes in at €475.
But that figure could feasibly be divided by four if the travelling party were close and unlikely to fight on what could be an arduous journey which would take it to just under €120 a head.
It might seem like the best value but you would need time to spare and the journey home if the result doesn’t go our way could be spectacularly miserable for everyone.
It is worth noting that many of the Irish fans handing over big money for flights may be left without a ticket to see that game. The stadium in Prague has a capacity of just 19,370 so if Ireland are allocated a typical 5 per cent of the tickets that are available, then just 900 or so Irish fans will be in the stands for the game, far fewer than the number that are likely to travel.
