Eoghan Corry Talks Travel – April 2026
Jet fuel costs, Aer Lingus flight cancellations and more – Eoghan Corry has this month’s latest travel news.
Jet fuel prices, flight cancellations, cheaper fares to Australia, and a boost in Ireland’s hotel capacity all feature in Eoghan Corry’s latest column, as he rounds up this month’s key travel talking points.
Fuel for thought 1
The price of jet fuel has doubled, which is a worry for airlines, but, oddly, not yet a worry for passengers for some unique reasons in the unique industry that is aviation.
Ryanair is sitting pretty, up to 80% of its fuel already purchased for the year at a bargain basement price. Ryanair is enjoying the crisis, as Ryanair does every crisis, by watching the discomfort of rivals, such as Wizz, 55% hedged but not as well founded in terms of aircraft ownership. Aer Lingus fuel is also hedged through its parent, IAG, but that hedging drops to 40% a little earlier in the season than they would like.
Even Emerald, the oft-forgotten third largest airline in Ireland, with a respectable two million passengers, is 40% hedged. On the other side of the, ahem, hedge, SAS Scandinavian is not hedged at all. US airlines traditionally do not hedge, and the ailing low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines is being touted as the potential first major casualty of the oil price crisis.
Fuel for thought 2
While airlines are fretting over the PRICE of jet fuel, airports are fretting over the SUPPLY. Asia and Australia are already encountering a supply crisis, But Europe has three reasons to be cheerful.
Firstly most of our oil does not come through the Gulf of Hormuz, we source a lot from USA, Norway and Venezuela and Eastern Europe gets some from Russia. Secondly the major suppliers are claiming there is no issue (England is a special case, 25% of its jet fuel comes from Kuwait). Thirdly, the spot price is steadfastly low, meaning the exchange markets still regard this as a short term problem.
Reasons to be less cheerful: some Italian airports have run out of fuel in recent weeks, which airlines put down to a local supply issue. The problem with suppliers is they say they do not say there is an issue until there is an issue. Not my words, but those of a certain Mullingar-based CEO of a major international airline who shall remain nameless.
A Dubai surprise
The cost of flights via Dubai to Australia, Thailand, anywhere going east, have dipped unexpectedly as the Gulf carriers restored their schedules. Punters can save a thousand euro on a summer Kangaroo jump, but there is a snag. The Department of Foreign Affairs is still telling people not to travel through Abu Dhabi, Doha and Dubai, which could cause your travel insurance to be cancelled, not just for the stopover, but for the entire trip.
Regardless of advice, many people are understandably wary of travelling through the Gulf. Emirates will be reviewing operations from May 1 and are expecting to bring back the daily flight schedule over 400 flights per day. Not quite back to normal yet, but close.
Concerns for Cork-Frankfurt
With all the fuel price and supply kafuffle, airlines are taking the opportunity to cut losses. Lufthansa, while reasonably hedged, has shut down its short haul subsidiary, CityLine, potentially impacting its Cork Frankfurt summer services.
Dublin is not affected as that is mainline and city airlines (VL). One of the Cork flights is operated by Lufthansa mainline using a A319. SAS have also cut thousands of flights, but Dublin is not affected. When fuel prices rise, an airline with routes that are already struggling can lose a lot of money very quickly indeed.
Aer Lingus disappearing flights
The 500 Aer Lingus flight cancellations this summer were announced a lot earlier in the fuel-price-supply cycle than the level of public interest would suggest.
Read: List of ALL Aer Lingus summer flight cancellations due to maintenance
While the west coast cancellations (Seattle, San Francisco) suggest fuel might be factor, Aer Lingus are well hedged for the early part of the summer, the bigger issue, also Gulf related, is aircraft availability.
Aer Lingus have an aircraft stranded in Jordan awaiting EASA approval to be flown back to Dublin. EASA will reconsider restrictions on April 24, so the network planners will be waiting for the cockpit lights to go on.
More Irish beds for sale this summer
Time to fluff the pillow cases. The home holiday market has just gotten 20,000 extra beds as pressure eases on tourism accommodation tied up in government contracts. The number beds contracted, largely for the accommodation of Ukrainian refugees, has halved.
So far in 2026, 25 contracts have ended, following 195 ended in 2025 and 420 in 2024. That leaves 22,450 beds in hotels, guesthouses and B&Bs and 531 contracts remaining in operation across Ireland.
Constrained supply means higher prices in hospitality, but will prices fall? That remains to be seen, as there is some signed of increased demand for home holidays and there is a question mark about the self catering industry which could strangle any hopes of prices coming down.
The Raleigh cycle
The first of two trans-Atlantic routes from Aer Lingus has commenced, bringing passengers to and from North Carolina. Raleigh Durham does not exactly trip off everyone’s lips when they consider holidays in the USA, but there are 10 million people in the catchment area who are potential visitors to Ireland and onward to Europe.
Pittsburgh, a little steel heartlet of Ireland between the east and the midwest, is next up on May 25th, one of eight new routes launching from Dublin and Cork in May, five from Aer Lingus and one each from Emerald, FlyOne and SunExpress.
Have a blissful Bealtaine.
Eoghan Corry is Ireland’s leading travel commentator and aviation specialist in Ireland, as well as being a historian, author and broadcaster. He has extensively travelled as a travel journalist and has been a speaker and moderator at tourism and aviation conferences including the World Tourism Forum, Tourism Ireland and Thailand Tourism.
