Liverpool’s astonishing victory over Barcelona and Tottenham Hotspur’s equally implausible defeat of Ajax Amsterdam in the Champions’ League semi-finals has caused a surge in fares to Madrid, where the two English teams will meet in the final on Saturday 1 June.
Fans of the Merseyside team had a 24-hour window of opportunity, taking advantage of the fact that the other finalist was not known until late on Wednesday evening.
The meeting of two English teams in the final has not happened since Moscow in 2008, when Manchester United beat Chelsea.
Madrid is a lot easier to reach than the Russian capital, but fares have surged as limited supply meets intense demand.
Non-stop flights on easyJet’s flight from Liverpool to Madrid on Friday 31 May, returning on Sunday 2 June, have already sold out. Many of the seats were snapped up weeks or months ago by fans who had faith in their team reaching Europe’s most prestigious club football event.
They paid much less for what will be a far better experience than supporters who waited until the final whistle at Anfield.
Here is how to get to the final.
How to fly there from the Merseyside area
For travel out on the day before the match, returning on the day after, the lowest return fare shown on Skyscanner is £527. It involves travelling out from Liverpool John Lennon airport on easyJet to Geneva, then transferring to Swiss, taking just over six hours. The return journey is scheduled to last nearly eight hours – involving an early start on Sunday morning onboard Iberia to Venice, and connecting to easyJet for the final leg.
However, these options involve “self-connecting” – taking the risk that, if the first flight is late, the traveller could miss the second with no entitlement to further care.
Nearby Manchester airport has a much wider range of flights, but again all the non-stop options have already been bought up.
The nearest airport with a non-stop option at least on the crucial outbound sector, is Birmingham – from where Iberia Express flies to Madrid in 2 hours 25 minutes. The fare is €643 (£552) one way.
Returning from the Spanish capital to Merseyside is proving extremely problematic. At 8am on Wednesday the Ethiopian Airlines flight from Madrid to Dublin was priced at £134 one-way. It has now increased to over £500.
From the Irish capital, Ryanair has a range of departures to Liverpool for around £100.
The smarter option is to aim for Barcelona, many of whose fans assumed they would be heading for Madrid on 1 June. The Catalan capital has a vast number of flights, and fares have so far not been too badly hit by “the Liverpool effect”.
From Manchester to Barcelona on 31 May, returning on 2 June, the total fare is £402 – outbound on Vueling, back on Ryanair.
How to fly there from the London area
There are far more flights from the capital to Madrid and elsewhere in Spain, but many seats have already been snapped up by Liverpool supporters.
Between London and the Spanish capital, the main airlines are British Airways and its sister carrier Iberia. The standard fare being charged from Heathrow to Madrid on Friday 31 May and the first part of Saturday 1 June is £659. At 11pm on Wednesday there is one seat available on the Iberia Express evening flight from Gatwick at £502.
Much better is the 3.15pm departure from Heathrow, with four seats at £79 at the time of writing. It arrives at 6.45pm, which should give enough time to get to the stadium.
Other airlines are available, but are similarly expensive. Air Europa has seats on Friday from Gatwick for £499, while easyJet has one-way flights from Luton for £750.
These are one-way economy fares and do not include luggage or inflight catering.
Returning home, the standard fare on Sunday is £771 on easyJet, with a few seats remaining on the afternoon Iberia Express departure to Gatwick at around £500.
Connecting flights via some weird and wonderful places are also available, with connection opportunities in Casablanca on Royal Air Maroc or Kiev on Ukraine International.
Surely someone will organise football specials?
In normal circumstances, by teatime on Thursday dozens of charter flights would be lined up. Typically they would be flying out from Liverpool, Manchester and some of the London airports around lunchtime on Saturday, and returning in the early hours of Sunday morning.
That schedule means fans would not have to worry about accommodation.
Two problems: it is a summer season Saturday, and almost all the spare aircraft in Europe have been chartered by airlines such as Norwegian and Tui Airways to cover for gaps in their schedules caused by the worldwide grounding of the Boeing 737 Max.
Thomas Cook Sport has sourced some aircraft and is organising flights for Liverpool fans who have match tickets to the game.
The cost is £559 per person, and demand is extremely strong. They are available only for Liverpool supporters who have purchased an official match ticket from the club.
The Independent understands that Thomas Cook Sport will organise similar flights for Spurs fans from the airport for north London, Stansted.
What about flying to somewhere else in Spain?
The obvious target is Barcelona (whose team were beaten on Tuesday night by Liverpool). It has many flights from the London area (indeed, it is the most popular route from Gatwick). Frequent high-speed trains take under three hours to reach Madrid from Barcelona, with fares starting at about £50 each way.
There appear to be plenty of seats available on easyJet, Ryanair and Norwegian from a range of London airports.
Alicante, Malaga and Seville also have high-speed links to Madrid.
We’re driving. What is the best route?
The most direct driving distance from Merseyside to Madrid is 1,200 miles, using the ferry from Portsmouth to Cherbourg. The straight-through journey is likely to take 24 hours.
The distance from London is around 1,000 miles if you use the Newhaven-Dieppe route, but using Eurotunnel from Folkestone or a ferry from Dover to Calais will be faster.
You could also consider, though, a fly-drive – using one of the airports in southwest France such as Biarritz, Toulouse or Perpignan. They are unlikely to have a “Champions’ League surge”. For example, flying on Ryanair from Stansted to Biarritz on Thursday and back on Monday is currently £165 return. From Biarritz you can take a train to the Spanish border at Irun, where car rental is likely to be cheaper.
How to stay there
Even though Madrid is a business and political hub, with thousands of hotel rooms, rates have increased dramatically. The cheapest deal on Booking.com is for the Hotel Madrid Charmartin, at £598 for a twin room.
With such extreme prices, it is likely that Madrilenos will cash in by offering accommodation on Airbnb.
Any other ideas?
Yes. Book a one-week package holiday to a Spanish mainland resort. For example, Tui has a week in Torremolinos from Gatwick on Wednesday 29 May for £333 per person including accommodation with breakfast at the three-star Roc Flamingo. Torremolinos is close to Malaga, from where there are fast trains to Madrid.
From Manchester, Thomas Cook has a week at the Internacional in Salou departing on Tuesday 28 May for a week for £487. Salou is close to the Tarragona high-speed station, with Madrid barely two hours away.
