Eoghan Corry Talks Travel – November 2025

Goodbye printed boarding passes, hello new planes, Eoghan Corry rounds up this month’s latest travel industry news.

Ryanair scraps printed boarding passes, new aircraft touch down in Dublin, and awards season takes off. With highlights from World Travel Market, women in charge of Irish Tourism, travel sales, and the best times to fly, Eoghan Corry brings you the month’s top travel news.

So farewell, then, printed boarding pass

Thirteen months after it was first announced, Ryanair has become the first airline worldwide to completely phase out the printed boarding pass. One surprise form the process is the number of passengers who still like to print out boarding passes, nearly 20 million across the continent according to Ryanair’s own figures.

Ryanair executives from Michael O’Leary down have made it is clear that, over winter, people who show up with printed boarding passes will NOT be denied boarding. Presumably they will simply be issued a yellow card and told to change their outdated ways.

After that it may get a little more interesting, like the Ryanair we know when the bag does not fit the sizer. Will it work? Lots of people do not use smartphones, and not just older people. Will consumer rights agencies decide this is a smartphone too far? Michael O’Leary has clearly never met my Auntie May.

A bargain basement, six miles high

Once upon a travel-time the January sale defined the year ahead for the industry. In airlines and travel agencies 30% of the annual sales took place over a few frantic weeks. January sales are still a thing, but companies are jumping earlier so they are merging with the imported “Black Friday” sales that were once the preserve of American carriers. All of this makes the pre-Christmas period a good time to shop, if the credit card can stand the pressure. There is always a second round of bargains in January if it cannot.

• Watch out for The Travel Expert’s Massive Black Friday Travel Sales round up coming on the 24th of November.

Cheapest time to travel

The first two weeks of December are the most cost-effective times to travel to everywhere except Lapland. Sunshine (Canary Islands) and snow (Austria and France) packages and flights drop to their cheapest rates, for those who want to escape the pre-Christmas frenzy.

Shiney 1

You may need sunglasses as you approach Dublin airport in the run up to Christmas and it is nothing to do with the carefully planned lights display. A staggering amount of new hardware has arrived from Seattle and Toulouse.

Ryanair received ten new aircraft from Boeing, of 55 in total delivered by the beleaguered manufacturer, bringing the Ryanair recent delivery count to 23. Michael O’Leary was told he could defer his new aircraft until the spring but with the wisdom of one who has waited for too many overdue jets, he decided to take them even though he will not need them until next summer. They arrived in convoys of up to three, to the delight of the spotters who were watching from the famous mound.

Not to be outdone Aer Lingus took delivery of their latest A321XLR with another due in the coming weeks, already spotted in Aer Lingus livery in Hamburg and an A320 as well. Their new long range single aisle arcraft is named for saint Caoilfhionn as is traditional for the airline, joining saints Sárnait, Dearbhla, Fergus, and MacCuillin (the A320).

The next will be Saint Brendan, who apparently discovered America, replacing the last Saint Brendan who retired in 2020. Aer Lingus reported a summer profit of €170m founded almost entirely on its trans-Atlantic services. God praise Saint Brendan.

Shiney 2

This is a glitzy season in the travel world with a round of awards ceremonies to give the industry’s hard working professionals an opportunity to glam up. The season started in county Down, where Holiday Hotspot in Larne snatched the travel agency award away from serial winners Oasis Travel.

Most independent agencies in Ireland belong to two consortiums and they had separate award ceremonies. Navan Travel won the Worldchoice award and O’Hanrahan Travel in Monaghan the Travel Centres award.

Two more awards are up for grabs, one run by ITTN in November and the other at the Irish Travel Industry Awards in January on the eve of the Holiday World show. The incumbent is Cassidy Travel in both cases, while Magic Vacations in Cork won the award for smaller agencies at the ITIAs.

The industry likes a celebration with some well deserved accolades. Congratulations to all who make the winning enclosure and well done to our hard working non winners as well.

Takeaways from World Travel Market

World Travel Market in London was buzzier than ever, having grown slightly from last year but still shrunken from pre-pandemic. Saudi Arabia was back with the biggest stand. European countries seem to have all fallen collectively in love with LED walls.

Instagram opportunities were scattered throughout the two giant halls of Excel, led by Egypt’s display of faux-treasure from the new Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza. Africa, however, has clearly fallen off WTM’s sphere of interest. Their stands were banished to the basement somewhere beyond the cloakroom.

Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand all announced new campaigns. Two tourism ministers, from Belfast and Dublin, joined the Irish stand, the first time that both have shown up since 2009 when Arlene Foster and Martin Cullen did a peculiar double act, the Stormont minister refusing to stand in photographs with her Dublin counterpart.

Irish Ferries were to be found on the double, on the Wallonia stand as well as Ireland, a tribute to the success of their operations between Dover and Calais. It was all very frantic and fun, and we left with lots of ideas for next year.

Women in charge of Irish tourism

Spot the pattern here: Laura McCorry has just been appointed the new CEO of TourismNI and Caroline Bocquel is about to assume the same role at Fáilte Ireland, the first time in either case a woman has held the role. Alice Mansergh became the first CEO of Tourism Ireland two years ago. The chair of TourismNI is Ellvena Graham. The chair of Fáilte Ireland is Ruth Andrews and when Christopher Brooke leaves the role of chair of Tourism Ireland next year the next chair will be Karen Hennessy.

Irish tourism, an industry that has long been overwhelmingly staffed by women and led by men is about to get all-female leadership. One wonders what the aviation CEO Akbar Al baker, who once said a woman could not do his job, might think of it all?

Banking on the view

There is no doubting the trendiest place to eat in Dublin in the run-up to Christmas, as soon as it is ready. The former Central Bank building in Dublin is becoming a new sky-high restaurant called Díon with a fada, it means roof for anyone who has forgotten their primary school gaeilge, set to open in November.

The question is, will it cost will you need a hefty slice of the Central bank’s national reserve to dine there? The publicity says it will feature modern Irish food with a global twist. Sam Stephenson, you have a lot to answer for.

How to avoid Christmas

Hate Christmas and want to avoid it altogether? First the good news. Christmas in Spain and Portugal is not as commercial as home. Christmas Eve, December 24 is family gathering day in most of Europe. January 6 is Spain’s big day with terrific parades celebrating the three kings.

Then the bad news. Even non-Christian countries like Morocco, Egypt, Turkey and Jordan seem
to have succumbed to the ho-ho-ho. At least the annoying family won’t be there.

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.