Race to seize tickets for England v Switzerland amid additional flights

Airlines are putting on extra flights for England football fans scrambling to get to Germany for the Euro 2024 quarter-final against Switzerland this Saturday.

Tickets for the hotly-anticipated match in Dusseldorf, which kicks off at 5pm, are now going for up to £9,000 each on resale websites amid intensifying demand.

Ryanair has added four extra flights from Stansted to Cologne and Dortmund, while easyJet has also increased the number of seats on its services to Germany.

Tickets for single flights from Heathrow to Dusseldorf start at £95 today with British Airways, then £200 with Eurowings both tomorrow and Friday. On Saturday, the only flight to arrive in time is the BA 7.20am with just one business ticket left at £777.

A cheaper option is flying to nearby Cologne, with Ryanair offering services for £98 today, £177 tomorrow and £83 on Friday. For Dortmund, flights with Ryanair are £108 today, £125 tomorrow or £62 on Saturday morning – with nothing left on Friday.

The official England Supporters Travel Club received an allocation of 6,731 tickets for the match at the 47,000-capacity Merkur Spiel-Arena, which were balloted.

Seats cost between from €60 (£51) to €300 (£254), but others will now be looking at getting in through resale sites such as Ticombo, Fanpass and Live Football Tickets.

Tickets on these websites cost between £441 and £8,715, but fans risk not getting into stadiums given Uefa’s official platform is the only authorised resale platform for the tournament – with the organisation banning the sale or auction of tickets.

Neither Viagogo nor StubHub are selling any tickets to England games at Euro 2024 to ensure ‘full compliance with the letter and spirit’ of the law, reported The Times.

Uefa is however allowing ticket-holders who cannot attend a match due to an ‘unforeseen event at the last minute’, to transfer their ticket to a friend or family member through its mobile app.

Ryanair confirmed extra flights have been added on ‘key match routes’ to Germany ‘following unprecedented demand from English fans’.

Jade Kirwan, Ryanair’s head of communications, said: ‘It’s been an epic summer of football so far and to celebrate England’s quarter final success, Ryanair has added extra flights from Stansted to Cologne and Dortmund so that more fans can make it to the iconic Düsseldorf Arena to see England take on Switzerland this Saturday.

‘These extra flights are available now, but are expected to sell out quickly, so avoid disappointment and book now at ryanair.com.’

Its planes tend to carry up to 200 passengers, meaning the four extra flights equate to around 800 extra seats.

Ryanair added that a total of 13,000 extra seats had been added for the Euros over the past few months.

EasyJet is running 21 flights from the UK in time for the game this weekend and more than 40 to Amsterdam, from which passengers can travel to Düsseldorf.

Following England’s win on Sunday, return flight bookings to Germany from the UK are up by 79 per cent year-on-year, according to data shared with MailOnline by travel management company TravelPerk.

This is compared to trends pre-Sunday’s match where UK bookings to Germany for the football season had increased by an average of 32 per cent year-on-year.

The firm added that there was an overall 82 per cent increase in return flight and train bookings to Germany for the knockout stage of the tournament, compared to the same period in 2023.

The biggest growth in demand is for the final in Berlin, with a 227 per cent increase in flight and train bookings in the days leading up to the match. This has also triggered a surge in average flight prices for the final, up 29 per cent versus the same period last year.

The cities which have driven the biggest spikes in overall transport arrivals are Cologne (up 176 per cent), Berlin (up 99 per cent) and Frankfurt (up 79 per cent).

In Munich, overall transport bookings to the Euros are up 61 per cent year over year, which climbs to 96 per cent in the lead-up to the semi-final in the city, peaking at 260 per cent for those arriving on match day.

Eugen Triebelhorn, managing director and country head for Germany at TravelPerk, told MailOnline: ‘Major sporting events always drive surges in corporate travel, as businesses capitalise on these moments to entertain clients and partners in a relaxed atmosphere.

‘Connecting over sports presents valuable networking opportunities and can unlock substantial business potential.’

Other host cities such as Dusseldorf, Cologne, Dortmund, and Gelsenkirchen are also experiencing increased demand, with train bookings on these routes rising by up to 145 per cent.

TravelPerk’s data captured customer bookings made year to date, for travel between June 26 and July 21 this year, and the growth figures represent the year-on-year booking increases for the same dates.

It comes as the England team’s wives and girlfriends flew in to see their loved ones yesterday on a fleet of six private planes for a few hours of relaxation ahead of the quarter-final.

The Wag airlift on planes worth a combined £40million saw three flights land at Erfurt-Weimar airport in Germany from Dusseldorf – while a fourth arrived from Birmingham.

Another two jets from Dortmund and Liverpool, which were not listed on the airport’s arrivals schedule, also landed within the same 30-minute window.

With a private jet flight costing in the region of £35,000 per flight, the six inbound and six outbound flights mean the operation to reunite the players with their other halves for only five hours is estimated to have cost up to £420,000.

The squadron of jets, including a 14-seat Embraer Legacy 650E and a Pilatus PC-12 turboprop, was carrying Wags including goalkeeper Jordan Pickford’s wife Megan. 

The 28-year-old was seen behind an umbrella being held by a crew member.

Georgina Irwin, 28, wife of goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, 26, was also seen disembarking. Ellie Alderson, the childhood sweetheart of striker Ollie Watkins, both 28, was photographed wearing Armani sunglasses on the overcast morning.

Television personality Dani Dyer, 27, partner of Jarrod Bowen, also 27, was seen in a denim jacket over a knitted cream mini-dress, paired with £790 Louis Vuitton mules, as she stepped off a jet carrying one of her children.

Irish model and dancer Aine May Kennedy, 27, the girlfriend of midfielder Conor Gallagher, 24, was also seen at the airport yesterday, carrying a bag from luxury fashion brand Jill Sander, along with Anouska Santos, 32-year-old partner of injured defender Luke Shaw, and Katie Bio, girlfriend of striker Ivan Toney, both 28.

Also seen boarding shuttle buses as the jets lined the airfield’s apron were Declan Rice’s partner Lauren Fryer, 25, and reserve goalkeeper Dean Henderson’s wife, whose name is not known.

A fleet of black Mercedes people carriers and taxis were seen lined up outside the airport, around a 40-minute drive from the Three Lions’ training camp at a luxury golf and spa resort outside Blankenhain, Thuringia.

Although the FA provides a link to a concierge service to help with the booking, it is understood the players foot the cost of the flights for their partners and families.

The Wags flew in 24 hours after singer Ed Sheeran landed at Erfurt to give a private performance to the England squad at their resort.

A video of Sheeran performing his debut hit The A Team was later posted on social media.

An airport source said: ‘This is a really exciting time for the airport. It’s not the biggest, and we don’t get many famous people through our doors. So to have all of these stars is something special.

‘Ed Sheeran was here yesterday, and it doesn’t get much bigger than that. But it was great to see the players’ wives as well.’

But there was no sign among the Wags of model Annie Kilner, estranged wife of England’s errant vice-captain Kyle Walker.

Prior to the tournament a source said Ms Kilner, 30, planned to fly to and from Germany with their four sons for each England match, but had no intention of playing ‘happy families’ with the player, who has also fathered two children with influencer Lauryn Goodman.

Last night the Wags’ planes left Erfurt-Weimar in quick succession from 6.45pm. Their 12 flights covered a total of 5,150 miles.

A seventh plane, believed to be carrying the family of captain and Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane, departed for Oberpfaffenhofen airport outside Munich.

Almost 16 million people tuned in to watch England’s dramatic extra-time victory over Slovakia to land a place in the quarter-finals.

The audience peaked when 18.4million tuned in on ITV1 and ITVX on all devices to see England saved from an embarrassing exit from the tournament.

Jude Bellingham’s stoppage-time goal prevented Gareth Southgate’s team from crashing out in the last 16.

The Three Lions fought back to beat Slovakia 2-1 after extra time, with Harry Kane sealing the win with a header.

From kick-off to final whistle, the match was watched by an average of 15.6million people – with 66 per cent of the available TV audience tuning into the coverage, according to overnight ratings.

The total ITV coverage, which started at 3.30pm, was watched by 11.3million.

The extra time meant the England match was followed directly by Spain v Georgia on ITV1 and ITVX, which peaked with 8.9million.

Bellingham celebrated his 21st birthday at England’s Euro 2024 base in Blankenhain on Saturday, and just a day later produced the stoppage-time stunner to help save his side.

The Prince of Wales described the dramatic comeback win as an ’emotional roller-coaster’. 

After the victory William, who is president of the FA, retweeted a photograph of England’s goal heroes.

Next to the image which showed Bellingham planting a kiss on Kane’s forehead, William wrote: ‘Emotional rollercoaster! Let’s go @England! Quarter finals here we come!’

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, on the campaign trail in the final days before tomorrow’s General Election, posted online to mark England’s win.

Along with a photo of himself in a shirt and tie, standing amid a delighted crowd celebrating England’s goals, he wrote: ‘It’s not over until it’s over.’