Christmas on the ground for Ryanair: why Europe’s largest low-cost airline doesn’t fly on 25 December

Thursday 25th December 2025 05:19 AM

Of
Leonard Berberi

The choice of the Irish company to celebrate the religious holiday: around 3 thousand flights “disappear” from radar in one day, more than 10% of the continent’s traffic

On Christmas Day, over three thousand flights “vanished” into thin air in European skies. Not because of some setback – bad weather, strike or anything else – but because Ryanair, the largest airline on the continent and fourth in the world in terms of movements, is closing everything on December 25th. No Boeing or Airbus took off for a total of 36 hours.

The main reason is cultural. Ryanair has its headquarters just outside Dublin. Christmas, in a Catholic country like Ireland, is a deeply felt celebration. And so pilots, flight attendants, ground and administrative staff stay at home: no one shows up at the airport or in the office.

On 24 December 2025 Ryanair put 1,720 flights on sale. The last flight to leave, on Christmas Eve, was at 6.30pm (7.30pm in Italy): FR5307 from Kerry to Dublin, 31 minute journey. On December 26th it resumes with 2,658 scheduled departures. The first takeoff? At six in the morning (5 in Italy), with flight FR8866 from Sofia to Bergamo.

And so, one day a year, Ryanair (which also includes Malta Air, Buzz and Lauda Europe) does without over 500 thousand passengers and around 40 million euros in revenues. Is it possible that this is also good for someone as attentive to economic results as the CEO of the low cost group, Michael O’Leary? There are those who argue that between little traffic and increased operating costs (it’s a holiday shift, overtime skyrockets) in the end the impact is greatly attenuated.

It must be said that Jet2.com is also not flying on December 25tha British company very focused on tourist destinations. But it has more than ten times fewer movements than Ryanair. Another Irish company, Aer Lingus, doesn’t fly either. Although, technically, some flights depart from the USA on Christmas afternoon, which is late in the evening in Europe.

Then there are carriers who, again for religious reasonsthey don’t fly for a few hours each week. This is the case of Israeli airlines, such as El Al, whose last flight takes off on Friday around lunchtime, and then resumes around eight in the evening on Saturday. In between is Shabbat, the Jewish rest.

December 25, 2025 (changed December 25, 2025 | 10:36)