Eoghan Corry Talks Travel – August 2026

Fewer winter flights, Spain and USA visitors down, but holiday makers won big this summer. Eoghan Corry covers all this and more in his latest column.

Flight cuts, fewer seats on busy routes and a sharp rise in last-minute bookings were among the big travel stories in August. More passengers are booking flights within a fortnight of departure, while ferry bookings in the final 24 hours have soared. There are also new incentives for travellers flying via the Middle East, but will they persuade Irish holidaymakers to travel against government advice? Meanwhile, a new 5-star hotel is officially on track to open in early 2027. Eoghan Corry reports on the key travel talking points below.

Winter trimmings

Winter is not a time to be adventurous in aviation, all the more so given the price of fuel and a reluctant mood among consumers. After decades celebrating an addiction to growth, Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’ Leary told the stock market he is taking the foot off the pedal this winter.

While Ryanair is holding back on growth rather than cutting its schedule, Aer Lingus has also finalised their trans-Atlantic trimmings for winter. For both airlines it means, not just the end of Denver and Seattle, but fewer flights on the busy routes. As the proverb goes: Ní hé lá na gaoithe lá na scolb, which roughly translates as don’t fly too many flights on marginal routes in winter when there is a war in the Middle East.

Consumers won big this summer

The annual guessing game between consumer and airline (or tour operator) has come to a close and a winner had been declared. Holiday makers ended up paying an average of five euro each less than the airlines were anticipating, something that appeared very unlikely last March when we were best by scare headlines about fuel supply and fuel price.

People were booking later, which played havoc all summer with the alogarithms of the airlines’ booking systems, ever after Ryanair implemented a few of their trademark tweaks. Surveys form Click&Go, Tui and loveholidays each indicate that the number of passengers booking within a fortnight of departure has increased, on some weeks by half.

In the ferry business the booking window has gotten even shorter, with a huge growth in passengers deciding to book in the 24 hours before departure, an issue for planning staffing levels rather than price, as is the case with the airlines. The signs are that things are not going to change over winter, so we can continue to count those savings for a while.

Dublin airport joins the five star hotel league

Ireland’s latest five star hotel, the Sofitel Dublin Airport, is officially on track to open in early 2027. SO
close to the terminal you can almost board form your bedroom, it will move Dublin closer to the top tier of
European airports.

Dublin is twelfth largest by passenger numbers, marginally ahead of Lisbon and Paris Orly. It will have a big impact on the premium passengers, local and stopover, and will land Dublin in the list of five star airport jewels, Crowne Plaza Changi, by a margin then world’s best airport hotel, Sofitel London Heathrow at Terminal 5, Fairmont Vancouver Airport and the most convenient of all, Dubai International Hotel located across concourses A, B, C, and D within the secure transit zone of Dubai International Airport.

Stopover incentives

Stopping over in the middle east has gotten way more complicated since the war, so it is interesting to see the incentives that airlines and local tourist boards have been putting in place to coax reluctant route-planners. Istanbul has long offered a free city trip for a stopover of five hours or more and a free hotel stay if the connection time is 20 hours or more.

Dubai is offering passengers with unavoidable layovers between 8 and 26 hours a complimentary hotel room, ground transfers, meals, and a transit visa. They do not organise city visits, but a complimentary 48-hour UAE entry visa included with Dubai Connect allows passengers explore the city.

Abu Dhabi is offering one or two free nights at select partner hotels in Abu Dhabi when booking eligible round-trip itineraries directly through Etihad Airways. Qatar offers hotels for transits between 12 and 24 hours and free city tours.

The problem is that the Department of Foreign Affairs still advises against transit through the middle east. Insurance companies have implemented a workaround but passengers are still avoiding the Gulf.

Read: The world’s best city stopovers

Spain numbers down

Irish visitor numbers to Spain have taken a surprise dip this summer. Down by 9% in June and 10% in
July. Some of this is related to the heat wave, some to air capacity cuts but the bigger factor is consumer
confidence. Ireland’s appetite for outbound travel overall has been slowing down.

Trump slump going deeper

The Trump slump on US outbound travel took a while to reach Ireland, but it appears to have arrived.
September is traditionally one of the busiest months for US inbound travel, so it is a tad worrying to hear
that tour operators who depend on the US market are reporting a much lower take up, especially at the
luxury end.

Golf and college football will have helped us through August and early September, but an
Irish tourism industry that has become more and more dependent on American traffic is getting scared.

So farewell then, Denver.

The end dates have been published for the routes that Aer Lingus is culling. Dublin-Denver operations
end after 28 September, the Minneapolis-St Paul service concludes after 24 October, and Dublin-Las
Vegas will fly its final rotation on 3 December. Dublin-Seattle survives but switches to a summer-only
operation, with winter service also ceasing after 24 October.

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.