Holiday fares to rise as Thomas Cook closes

The closure of tour operator Thomas Cook’s Irish operation is likely to lead to higher prices for holidaymakers.

The firm, Europe’s second largest tour operator, is to end its Irish operation at the end of May with the expected loss of 44 jobs.

Industry insiders have estimated that this will result in the loss of between 60,000 to 80,000 charter seats, which could drive prices for consumers up.

Chief executive of the Irish Travel Agents’ Association Pat Dawson said the loss of the tour operator would result in a basic supply-and-demand problem.

“You take 80,000 seats out of the mix and the demand is still there. So what will happen is, be it Aer Lingus or Ryanair, they’ll be looking down the shotgun and seeing where they can put on extra capacity, so there will be a supply and demand problem. We are worried that on some routes in particular, where there is a high demand, where Thomas Cook has ceased to trade, that there will be expensive air seats in the summer.”

Mr Dawson said he expected consumers booking last-minute flights will be hardest hit by price rises.

“Tour operators, if they undersell capacity, they offer last-minute deals, good prices and so forth. The opposite happens to airlines. If you book an airline three or four weeks out it is very expensive,” he said.

Editor of Travel Extra magazine, Eoghan Corry, said “places have disappeared off the map” for Irish holidaymakers as a result of Thomas Cook’s decision to pull out of the country.

“They had three airports in Turkey and that was a bit of a scrap. That was bad for Thomas Cook as well because that’s where a lot of the scrapping on price has taken place over the past two or three years. Greece: they were in three airports there. There were about 12 in Spain. It’s a lot of routes to lose and it’s a lot of choice to lose for the Irish consumer,” he said.

Mr Corry said the charter model has been struggling internationally for more than a decade, with Irish charter seats falling from 1.2m 12 years ago to an expected 220,000 this year. He said airlines and other tour operators would try to fill the void.

“What has been happening over the past 10 years is that Ryanair has moved in on the traditional holiday places like the Canaries, where scheduled airlines never flew to.”

“Some of the other tour operators are looking atincreasing capacity. Sunway have already been on the case. There will be attempts to pick up the passengers that are there. This could potentially shove prices for our big iconic holiday destinations like Faro, Malaga and Alicante and places like that up 10%,15% or 20%.”

Thomas Cook will formally cease offering charter holidays here from the end of April. Customers who have booked chartered trips via the firm’s Dublin office will be offered an alternative package and a 10% discount per person.