Cheap Flights from Dublin to Bologna

Book early. Fares on this pairing drift up as departure day approaches, and they rise sharply around the Christmas and New Year stretch and over Irish midterms and bank-holiday weekends, when the Dublin departures fill. September is the month that prices lowest here, and the calendar runs from September through March before picking up again with May, June and August — April and July don't appear on it. Midweek departures usually undercut Friday-to-Sunday ones, and if you fly in August, expect Ferragosto, when much of Italy is away on holiday.

The connecting fares come first in the list: Lufthansa routes through Frankfurt or Munich, British Airways through London, Vueling through Barcelona, Scandinavian Airlines through Copenhagen and Eurowings through a German base — each adds a change of plane and a second boarding pass to the day. The nonstop choice to look at first is Ryanair, the low-cost option whose base fare covers little beyond a small cabin bag; Aer Lingus, the Irish full-service carrier, includes more depending on the fare tier. Norwegian International, Wider and Mokulele Flight Service also turn up in the results — open the itinerary and confirm the routing before you pay.

Decide two things before you land: how you'll get into town and whether your bed sits near the station or the centre. Guglielmo Marconi, the airport every itinerary here uses, sits close to town, so the ride in stays short. The Marconi Express link runs between the terminal and Bologna Centrale, the station where trains towards Florence, Milan and the rest of Emilia-Romagna branch out; buses cover stops around the centre, and taxis wait at the rank outside arrivals. Land after the link shuts for the night and the taxi rank becomes the plan — worth deciding before take-off, not at midnight.

Currency

EUR (€)

Power sockets

Type C, F, L · 230 V

Language

Italian

Emergency number

112, 113, 115

Driving side

right

Calling code

+39

Internet domain

.it

EU / Schengen

EU member, Schengen area

Population of Bologna

388 k (2023)

Time zone

UTC+02 (Europe/Rome)

Country facts: Wikidata

• Look up Italy's entry rules for your nationality and confirm your passport or ID covers the whole trip before you pay for anything.
• Read the baggage line on any Ryanair or Vueling fare carefully, because the headline price and what you actually need can diverge fast.
• When a connecting option turns out to be two separate tickets, leave generous slack between the flights, since one airline won't rescue the other's delay.
• Dublin flights leave from the city's single airport, so the thing to double-check is your terminal and the bag-drop cut-off.
• The calendar prices September lowest and skips April and July entirely, so test your exact dates there before committing.