Ryanair and losses

Last Monday (16 May) the Dublin-based low-cost carrier revealed a full-year net loss of €355m.

As positive as ever CEO Michael O’Leary said Ryanair planned to grow passenger numbers in its 2022/23 full-year to 165m, while the group is targeting 225m annual passengers by full-year 2025/26.

Ryanair is hopeful of returning to "reasonable profitability" over the next year after cutting its 2021/22 full-year losses by two-thirds, despite the impact of Covid, the Omicron variant and war in Ukraine.

Passenger traffic recovered from 27.5m to 97.1m – albeit still 35% behind pre-Covid levels. Load factor was 82%, up from 71% in the year to 31 March 2021.

Total revenue increased from €1.64bn to €4.80bn (+193%) as passenger numbers recovered, with operating costs increasing from €2.48bn to €5.27bn (+113%) in parallel.

Average fares have fallen by more than a quarter (27%) to €27, which Ryanair also attributed to Covid, Omicron and Ukraine, although ancillary revenue has increased to more than €22 per passenger with more people opting for priority boarding and reserved seats.

Looking ahead, O’Leary characterised the market as "fragile". He said people were still booking "much closer in" than was typical at this time of year pre-Covid, adding that the impact of Omicron and Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine meant Ryanair was still having to stimulate demand through discounting.

O’Leary added it was "impractical, if not impossible" to provide "sensible or accurate" profit guidance at this time "given the continuing risk of adverse news flows" on Covid and Ukraine.

www.ryanair.com

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