Eoghan Corry Talks Travel March 2026

Fuel surcharges, Spanish strikes and Cuba’s crisis, but are direct flights to Brazil and Thailand on the horizon? Eoghan Corry has this month’s latest travel news.

With 100 aircraft pulled out of Europe overnight, and oil prices continuing to climb, what lies ahead for long haul travel? New air service agreements are now in place with Brazil and Thailand, but when will we see direct flights? Eoghan Corry explores all of this and more in his latest column, rounding up this month’s key travel talking points.

Fuel if you think it’s over

Filling up the tank, aircraft, ferry or lawn mower, has become as unpredictable as waiting for a flight home from France in August. We know how tour operators and airlines reacted the last time that oil climbed north of $120 a barrel in 2008. Historic Travel agents pasted “fuel surcharge” notices on their windows and people who had already booked flights were asked to stump up another €20 or so.

The historic fuel price high that summer saw off a couple of airlines, killing XL’s Dublin services to Santorini and Skiathos and Flyglobespan’s service to Toronto, and proved the death knell for the thirsty high speed ferry services that used to ply their trade on Irish Sea. It took a global financial recession to get the price back down again, a cure that proved more painful than the disease.

So what has changed? Booking patterns for a start. The booking window has gotten shorter and tighter than it was in the noughties. Fewer summer flights are booked in advance. Secondly, the dominance of scheduled airlines, particularly Ryanair, has increased in the 18 years since then, as charter operators withdrew from the Irish market or switched to scheduled services.

This reduces the prospect of fuel surcharges being applied in Ireland in the manner and scale of what is happening in Asia, Australia and in both north and south America.

Now the bad news. There is no avoiding the fuel bill when flights are forced to take detours that add 20pc to their costs, and even Ryanair faces four and five hour sector lengths to the Canaries and Morocco. Ask not for whom the barrel tolls, it tolls for thee.

A funny thing about hedging.

How do we know who has hedged what as fuel prices climb? A useful rule of thumb is that European airlines hedge their bets on the future price of oil and American airlines do not, so expect those fuel price increases to go straight on to the bottom line of your ticket with an American carrier. There are exceptions. SAS, part of the Lufthansa group, was recently caught without being hedged.

If you want to know who leads the hedges championship, take your clippers to Mullingar. The bigger the airline, the better the hedging terms they can negotiate. Ryanair is hedged at $67 for 80% of its fuel I 2026, which leaves it largely immune to any oil price wobbles until, hopefully, the real tragedy of warfare is brought to an end by events.

That safeguards our summer from the price of oil, if not from the hundreds of thousands of displaced long haulers who will now all want to jump on the same flight to Faro as the rest of us.

With other airlines it is more complicated, percentages hedged at different prices, that decline as the months go on, which means that Aer Lingus parent IAG won’t make it through to August without feeling the sunburn”. As Eddie Murphy’s character in the 1993 classic “Trading Places,” said to his stock market manipulators: “Sounds to me like you guys a couple of bookies.”

A round of gulf

The past four weeks have been a wake-up call as to exactly how much we in Ireland and Europe in general depend on the Gulf stopover going eastbound, as 100 wide body aircraft were pulled out of Europe overnight. Of the services the three big Gulf carrier provide, Emirates, Etihad and Qatar, Ireland had six flights a day in each direction, soon to be seven.

The attractions offered by these airlines extended beyond their famous comfort, massive seat back screens and, more than anything, a single stopover instead of two (remember going through London and Singapore to Australia?). Fares were about 20% cheaper. The service was fresh and smiley and the hospitality matched the flight duration.

The question now is, as we rediscover European carriers, will they try to put a competitive model, including prices, in place, before the Gulf carriers get back into full swing? The return of the Gulf carriers could happen by the end of the month, if Emirates and Etihad are to be believed, with Qatar running about ten days behind. Chance would be a fine thing.

In for the long haul

How things have changed for our air connections. Government ministers are talking up the prospects of more long haul routes, a subject they would have avoided a short time ago. In recent weeks Charlie Mc McConalogue in Thailand and Darragh O’Brien in Brazil signed an air service agreements to allow flights to commence. That is the easy bit.

Getting an airline wiling to fly the route is a non-starter until the uncertainty of the passenger cap is removed. LATAM is expanding in Europe but did not include Dublin in their list of preferred routes. Thai Airways is undergoing a major expansion in 2026, aiming to increase its operating fleet to around 100 aircraft.

Despite the journey time of 18 hours, about 80,000 Irish travel to Thailand each year and another 30,000 to Phuket, and until now they have connected through the Gulf, which is no longer the simple option is once was.

Both are 9,000km, beyond the range of the A321XLR but well within reach of Aer Lingus A330, should they have one to spare. Other options being discussed include Austin, Delhi, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Shanghai and Singapore.

Stranded in Amman

An unexpected consequence of the war is the number of Irish aircraft stranded in Amman. Sent there for maintenance, they cannot be retrieved because of the direction of the EU safety agency, EASA, not to allow any European airlines flights through Jordanian air space. So, there they will be remain as the summer approaches and they are required by Ryanair and Aer Lingus to maintain their flight schedules.

Santa Semana strike stress

Spanish airport ground handlers have called a strike for Holy Week, which looks less a cause of disruption than anxiety for Irish passengers. Passengers are advised to bring hand baggage only if they can. With twelve major airports, three unions and two ground handling agencies involved, sorting it out will be a messy business.

The two companies affected are Menzies, which handles Ryanair in seven airports, and Groundforce which handles most of the others but NOT Aer Lingus. As part of IAG, which has its headquarters in Madrid, Aer Lingus bags are handled by South Europe Ground Services.

This is a repeat of a series of strikes at Menzies which were designed to hit airlines that included Ryanair, but had little noticeable impact on operations. Expect lots of headlines, but thing should function close to normal. I am packing the swimming togs in the briefcase just in case.

Cuba’s crisis continues.

The crisis continues at one of our favourite holiday destinations, as America tightens its blockade on Cuba, causing power black outs, a jet fuel shortage and holiday cancellations.

Ireland’s love of the island has been less perceptible in recent years, largely due to a previous American measure to kill off its tourism industry, when it decreed that the USA visa waiver would no longer apply to people who visited the island. So far 25 hotels in Cuba have closed in resort areas such as Cayo Santa Maria, Cayo Coco, Varadero, and Holguin.

Aviation summer.

The last weekend of March sees the clocks go forward and the airman’s summer take flight. The first new routes from Dublin include Ryanair’s route to Tirana on Monday and the start of Aer Lingus short season to Barbados on Tuesday as it closes its Manchester base. This will be followed by the first Sunexpress service to Dalaman on the following Friday.

Read: Top things to do in Albania and where to stay

Read: 10 Barbados holidays from Ireland with direct flights

Shannon gets Warsaw Modlin on Monday and two routes, Poznan and Rome-Ciampino on Tuesday, to be
followed by the arrival of an inbound Frankfurt service a week later. Easyjet’s new route from Belfast International to Larnaca has been cancelled due to recent developments.

Farewell Inn at Dromoland, Hello Ryne

We get the logic of changing the name of the Inn at Dromoland, but the new name? The Ryne is the river that flows through the Dromoland estate (who knew?) and has nothing to do with Ryanair or the slightly larger river in Germany.

Whatever about the name it remains one of our favourite stopover places with 155 recently refurbished bedrooms, some offering views over the Dromoland Castle Estate and the Shannon Estuary. A word of caution, it can be a long walk back to bed after a night out.

Just hold me in your arms

The Grace hotel is hosting its first events, with a soft launch to test whether its aspirations are as much on target as the building works before it gets up and running for the summer.

The hotel proffers 129 rooms and suites on the grounds of the 430-acre Westport Estate in Co. Mayo, and is utilizing two famous Graces, the pirate and the movie star, in its marketing to the key American market. Grace Kelly would be impressed; I am not so sure about Grainuaile.

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.