Irish soccer fans give airlines red card as cost of flights to Estonia skyrockets

DIEHARD Irish soccer fans might have to dig deeper than the players for the playoff against Estonia — and that’s just to get there.

The delight of drawing Estonia, perhaps the easiest team to face to reach Euro 2012, was quickly replaced with anxious glances to bank balances as the cost of flights to the Baltic capital quickly began to skyrocket.

All sorts of permutations were running through the minds of football fans — fly directly to Tallin from Dublin or London; fly to Helsinki and get a ferry across the Gulf of Finland to Tallin; or even just get to Riga in Latvia and take a bus up the coast.

However, once the draw was made, whatever option you plumped for was a pricey one.

Ryanair was feeling the fury as fans and politicians claimed that the airline had increased the cost of return flights to the Estonian capital fourfold, from €70 on Tuesday night to almost €280 yesterday.

Fine Gael’s John O’Mahony said the airline was exploiting Irish fans.

“Not for the first time, Ryanair is penalising Irish soccer supporters by increasing the cost of flights,” he said.

“Less than an hour since the draw was made to determine who will face who in the championship match on November 11, Ryanair fares to the capital of Estonia, Tallin, have increased dramatically.”

For its part, the self-proclaimed low fares airline announced it has scheduled an extra return flight from Dublin to Tallin for the match against Estonia.

The flight will depart on the morning of November 11 and return the following night. However, yesterday evening the prices for the flights ranged from €326 to €401.

Ryanair’s Lesley Kane said that the airline had been “swamped” with enquiries for next month’s match and encouraged people to book early to avoid disappointment.

A week before yesterday’s draw was made might have been your best bet.