By Georgina Brennan

Flights to Ireland for the Christmas season are fully booked, New York area travel agents report.

“Oh, it’s very busy. There are hardly any seats left,” reported an agent at Lismore Travel. 

But few if any of the seats are being taken by Americans or Irish traveling to Ireland for the holidays. 

“It’s a kind of smoke and mirrors effect. The flights are full going to Ireland, but it is because all the shoppers who originated in Ireland are returning home with their shopping bags,” says Barry Twomey of O’Connor Fairways. 

Irish shoppers returning home after a week or weekend of bargain hunting with their pockets full of strong euros and pounds make up 85% of the flight travelers, says Twomey. 

“Aer Lingus are experiencing a boom, they now have a third flight daily arriving into JFK and in an unprecedented move, Continental, which usually reduces their flights to Ireland to one small plane, have added a flight and increased the size of the plane,” he says. 

“There is something of a reverse kind of immigration going on. The Irish in New York are getting thin on the ground but their places on the planes are replaced by Irish with shopping bags.

“The only Irish people who we get going to Ireland for Christmas are the ones who get a little teary eyed at the last minute and look for a way to get home. Right now, we are sending those people through Birmingham and Manchester,” Twomey added.

Twomey says other destinations for Irish people here who can travel are proving popular. Twomey says South Africa is attracting huge numbers. With fares starting at $829 for a non-stop to Johannesburg, Twomey says there are bargains galore.

Some of the Irish who live in the U.S. have their hearts set on the sunny climes of the Caribbean or the lights and action of Miami. “But the flights are already booked solid,” warns Dympna Tully at Tully Travel in Yonkers. 

“There is a general atmosphere of people booking later this year. We have a whitewater rafting package in Costa Rica that is popular with the young Irish who can travel. Still, the Caribbean and Florida are popular with families traveling who booked earlier in the year.”

The Caribbean Islands that have traditionally been a good deal, such as Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, are still solid values because their currencies are tied to the dollar, so the tourist spending money goes a lot further. 

Denying that a last minute bargain could not be found, Tully says at her office the word no is not part of their vocabulary. 

“We can always find some way to get there. We have had a lot of people coming in who had not planned on a Christmas vacation deciding to go to Ireland and while it is difficult to get to Ireland, we don’t leave any stone unturned to find a way,” she says. 

During the past several weeks, Continental has announced additional service from Newark Liberty International Airport to Belfast in Northern Ireland. Irish airline Aer Lingus, which flies daily from Boston to Shannon and Dublin, cut economy class fares 20-30 percent and business class 40-60 percent in the last couple of months. 

For this season, Aer Lingus is offering a discounted fare program called The Gift of Ireland. If booked before January 5, one-way fares as low as $168 can be locked in for travel March 1-April 30. Visit www.aerlingus.com For information.