Delta Hog

For over a month I have wanted to price a flight CIA-HHN on May 27, 2016 (now, 281 days out). But the last available calendar date on ryanair.com for that route has always been March 26, 2016 (now, 219 days out). When does Ryan Air usually publish its calendar, how far in advance? It is obviously not following the 330-day system.

alanR

Tends to produce it's timetables twice a year - winter and summer. It's going to be a couple of months before they release the summer timetables.

BTW it's common for low costs to do that - and you do know that Hahn isn't near Frankfurt

Delta Hog

Thank you, that information is helpful.

I'm aware of the location of HHN, but my actual destination is Rudesheim, which I understand is pretty much equidistant from HHN or FRA (please correct me if I am wrong, I've never been there).

UltraRant

They usually release a schedule twice a year, but no more than 12 months ahead (apparently, for what I've learned, there are still quite some systems around which don't have the year of a booking listed, which in theory would make it possible to get a 'low fare' for 366 days ahead which then also would be valid tomorrow). Which means that the summer schedule you're looking for probably will come on September 27 or October 1st or so.

ps. Technically FRA is closer than HHN, but you may find traffic more pleasant via HHN than when driving through FRA. If you're depending on public transport, FRA may be your preferred port, though...

Mizter T

That sounds rather peculiar, but in any case I don't think it applies to Ryanair - checking a recent Ryanair boarding pass, the year definitely features as part of the date.

OP, you could try tweeting Ryanair directly (@Ryanair) and asking them - they might be able to give you a broad idea of when forthcoming schedules will be released, though you won't get an exact date from them.

UltraRant

Good. FR stands out. I actually got this piece of information from one of the speakers on a travel seminar some years ago. It was so peculiar that I remembered it.

Nevertheless, a tip to OP: usually FR's fares tend to drop from about 4 months prior to departure and go up from about 4 weeks prior, according to my experience.

Delta Hog

Again, thank you for the info. Will be acquiring a rental car at HHN. But the RyanAir fares into HHN are sooooooo much cheaper than any fares into FRA (for 4 pax, total of about 200 euro vs. 700 euro) that HHN is preferable. Just want to see if those same fares apply on the date I need flights.

Mizter T

I can't say this for certain as I haven't ever researched it properly, but I've a suspicion that when they are first released Ryanair fares might be a bit higher, but then drop after a bit - this does kinda mesh with UltraRant's comment in post #6 above.

Regardless, like other LCCs the pricing can be pretty dynamic - the logic of which is only ever going to be truly know to those within Ryanair.

Also like some other airlines, when looking up a flight on the Ryanair website a message can appear below a fare for a particular flight trying to promote a sense of urgency and scarcity, such as "3 left @ this fare" (i.e. 3 tickets at that fare level) - it's worth noting that this doesn't necessarily preclude lower fare levels being offered in the future for that particular flight.

Last obvious point - remember that the Ryanair fare doesn't include any hold (checked) baggage which is extra, though increasingly in Europe other airlines' lowest fares (including legacy carriers) don't include it either.

UltraRant

Ryanair is particularly good at this, with random statements like 'seats selling fast', 'book now' and 'top offer'.

My experience is that, usually, when legacy flag carriers offer a 'only x seats left' at a certain price level, prices usually only go up when those are sold (not taking into account the incidental unforeseen future offer that may come along). With the regular (European) lcc, it may actually still go down after a while.

Delta Hog: I recommend that you keep patient and keep monitoring the prices between Rome (all airports) and Frankfurt (all airports). I'm pretty sure LH will come up with an offer of about 100 euro per pax for a return and FR will come with an offer of about 20 euro per pax for a single trip (or even better than that). Airberlin and AliItalia also fly directly between the city pairs and they also have offers. Remember that FR also adds heaps and heaps of additional costs, so in that case the *real* costs for the tickets may be much closer.

What may be an idea is to use something like SkyScanner and see if you can put an alert on some specific routes and dates, so you skip manual monitoring.

Oaxaca

FR have just released their summer 2016 schedule from London airports, so I guess other hubs will follow in the near future.

True, but on that day there are usually only the number of seats they say are available at that price. It's easy enough to check, a search for 1 more pax than they say are available at a price will show a higher price for all pax.

"Heaps and heaps" maybe a little harsh, though there is of course a difference. It's only checked bags and seat reservations as the difference to most legacy carriers (though not BA anymore), and in line with most other LCCs in Europe.