What’s the best way to Prague to watch West Ham?

Simon Calder answers your questions on football finals, disconnected flights and the future of easyJet

The Czech capital is hosting the Europa Conference League final (iStock)

Q Can you help a Hammer? What is the best way to get to Prague to see West Ham play in the final of the Europa Conference League in June? Air fares are now silly money.

“WTS Skip Hire”

A West Ham United will play Fiorentina of Italy in the east London side’s first European final since 1976 on Wednesday 7 June. The match kicks off at 9pm at the Fortuna Arena in Prague. Almost 5,000 tickets have been allocated for West Ham fans, and they go on sale from Tuesday 23 May through uefa.com.

Evidently, many Hammers supporters are confident of securing tickets, because since the team’s victory in the semi-final on Thursday night, flight prices from London have gone way beyond normal levels. For example, flying out from Luton to Prague on Wizz Air at noon on the day of the match, returning next morning on British Airways to Heathrow, is currently priced at well over £1,000.

“Wait and see” is a reasonable strategy; the midweek fixture means airlines may have spare planes and crews to operate extra flights (subject to space at Prague airport). In the past Ryanair has been nimble at putting on services to key European football matches.

For more certainty, though, I suggest you aim for a different city and travel overland to the Czech capital. Berlin is my recommendation: easyJet has a handy 6.40am departure from Gatwick, arriving at the German capital at 9.40am, currently selling at £62. You can be pretty confident of making the 10.17am departure from the airport’s own station to Berlin Sudkreuz, where your express to Prague will be waiting. The journey is beautiful, and you will arrive in the Czech capital at a convivial 3.35pm. German Railways is currently selling the train ticket online for €71 (£62, the same as the flight).

Coming back the day after the match, do not retrace your steps: fares on Thursday 8 June are painfully expensive from Berlin for some reason. Instead take an early train (6.43am, €74/£64) to Nuremberg airport, where you should arrive in good time for the 1.30pm Ryanair flight to Stansted – currently €181 (£157).

If, though, you can stretch your stay, then flying out earlier and coming home later will allow you time to explore an alluring part of central Europe.

Does booking disconnected flights leave me at risk? (Getty/iStock)

Q Can I book a flight from Frankfurt to Bangkok with a separate flight from the UK to Frankfurt, ie not linked?

Martyn C

A There is no impediment that I can see for you booking such a flight, though sometimes credit card issuers are sniffy about large “third-country” purchases – and you may have to jump through a few hoops.

Having said that, just because you can book disconnected flights does not mean you should. Tickets from A to B to C have some important benefits – the most notable of which is to provide protection if anything goes awry on the A to B part. For example, you can buy a Manchester-Frankfurt-Bangkok flight on Lufthansa safe in the knowledge that the German airline must get you to the Thai capital come what may. If the aircraft due to operate Manchester-Frankfurt is arriving late, the airline can rebook you via Munich, Zurich or Vienna: Munich is the second Lufthansa hub, while the Swiss and Austrian cities are the homes for other airlines in the German group. Your baggage, too, is likely to accompany you. And because you will remain in “non-Schengen airside” at the connecting airport, the issue date of your passport is irrelevant. If, like me, your passport has passed its 10th birthday but still has six months remaining, you can travel happily on a connecting service.

As you may have gathered, the converse is not particularly appealing. You could find a budget flight to Frankfurt and allow a few hours for a connection. Almost all the time this will work, and you might (with hand baggage only) be able to remain airside and avoid the passport check. More likely, though, you will have checked baggage and will need to pick it up and go “landside” before checking in afresh for the flight to Bangkok. Personally, I wouldn’t take the risk of a same-day connection, though I would certainly do so with an overnight stay in Frankfurt – a fine German city.

I do use disconnected tickets to avoid long-haul air passenger duty, but usually only for US flights via Dublin – which also has the advantage of pre-clearing US customs.

Can easyJet bear its losses? (AFP/Getty)

Q I read your article about easyJet’s results in which you pointed out that the airline lost an average of £12.40 for every passenger carried. How can it possibly remain in business?

Ben P

A After easyJet revealed a half-year loss of £411m for the six months from October 2022 to March 2023, its shares rose by a couple of per cent – valuing the airline at £4bn. Investors are evidently impressed by the improvement compared with a year earlier, when Covid travel restrictions were still rife and the average loss was almost twice as much. And they are looking forward to a very profitable summer.

Many airlines trade at a loss through the winter. Demand plummets except for Christmas, New Year and (in the UK context) school half-terms. Carriers more than make up for it between April and September. Usually, Easter kick-starts higher revenue, with July, August and early September especially profitable. Flying out from Gatwick on the benchmark route to Alicante on 21 July, returning on 1 September, you could pay £677 return (excluding baggage, seat selection, etc) – quite a cost for a total airborne time of four hours.

As easyJet revealed with its results, UK consumers are placing a higher value on travel since the pandemic. Holidays are now the highest priority after household bills, according to a survey carried out for the airline. The easyJet results talked of “ticket yield strength” and “airline ancillary yield +£10.65 vs H1 2019”. In simple terms: basic fares are higher and passenger spending on extras has gone up by more than a tenner in a year.

A natural question to ask is: if summer is so profitable and winter losses so heavy, why not just shut down between October and March? Because a large slab of costs are unavoidably fixed. Aircraft leases remain payable if the planes are idle. While winter operations are lighter, an airline cannot easily be switched off: flying staff must be kept “current” – maintaining their hours to comply with safety rules. And loyal customers need to be flown around Europe. The trick is to ensure that winter losses are exceeded by summer profits, and easyJet is on course to achieve just that.

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