A Ukrainian woman has claimed Ryanair increased the price of a flight for refugees fleeing from her war-torn country by almost 200 Polish zloty while she was trying to complete a booking for one adult and two children on Sunday.
Mariya Nikishanova was attempting to purchase plane tickets from her Ennis home for a friend, Maryna and her two children who are crossing the Polish border to help them fly from Poland to Warsaw and then onto Dublin on March 3.
In an interview with the Clare Champion, she recalled she was buying the tickets for Ryanair from the Polish town.
“The price was 543 zloty, she gave me the names and I put the correct spellings in, I started to buy and when I pressed pay on the Ryanair site it said to go back, I went back and the price was 715 zloty.”
“In a few minutes because there is a demand they raised the price by 200, it is almost 30 to 40 percent. I can pay that amount but imagine other people, it could be the last bit of money they have, why did they do that?”
She called on Ryanair to keep flights for fleeing refugees to the bare minimum and not to take advantage of people in a desperate situation who are trying to leave Ukraine, which has been invaded by Russia.
Responding to Clare Champion queries, a Ryanair spokesman said the airline has over 700,000 flights on sale, which is the equivalent of 130m seats at any one time and noted pricing is subject to demand.
“Ryanair offers great choice and low fares on its Warsaw – Dublin route, which is evident from the available flights from Warsaw to Dublin for ZL 99.00 [€20.89] from Sunday, March 6 – Friday, March 11 and ZL 99.05 / €20.93 from Thursday, March 10 – Monday, March 14.
“Ryanair was not operating flights from Warsaw – Dublin on Tuesday or Wednesday. Fares on the next available flights this Thursday and Friday are higher given the demand, the ultimate reduced supply and proximity to the flight’s departure time.”
Six years ago, Mariya came to live in Clare following in the footsteps of her husband, Sergii when he got a job as a software engineer with Intel in Shannon.
The couple, who are living in Ennis, have two children aged five and eight. Mariya was born in Irpin, which is located about 20 kilometres from Kyiv, where she resided for a few years.
On February 21, she was planning to travel to Ukraine to celebrate her mother’s 70th birthday on Monday but couldn’t due to the outbreak of war.
She said her mother, Natasha, is devastated following bombing in a town, which is situated about four kilometres from her home, and is likely to get even closer as the Russian army advances towards Kyiv.
She expressed her horror at Russian air strikes and the invasion of her country.
“Who knows what Putin really wants. He wants to take over Ukraine and doesn’t want to hear about Ukraine as its own nation.
“I think Ukraine will win. The Ukrainian army and Ukrainian people will fight the Russian army on the streets and everywhere. The Ukrainian diplomats are doing amazing work by telling people what is really happening.”
“How could Russia even think of bombing Kyiv where so many people live in one square kilometre. It is crazy. It is terrorism to bomb cities in Ukraine. It is insane how you can kill people like this. How many normal and old people will die?
“But if Ukraine falls, Putin will try to go to Lithuania, Estonia and Poland.”
Calling for an end to the war, she hopes economic sanctions will eventually force Putin to call off the invasion.
She stressed Ukraine has never attacked another country and couldn’t be called an aggressor. She thanked the Irish government for waiving the requirement for visas for Ukrainian refugees coming into the country.
By Dan Danaher