Ryanair posts Q3 loss of 96 mln euros, sees this…
Ryanair reports £79M LOSSES for last three months of 2021: Boss Michael O’Leary warns of ‘hugely uncertain’ future despite travel restrictions eased
Budget airline says it will keep fares low with bookings still disrupted by Covid Loss today better than the £250million deficit in the same quarter of 2020
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Ryanair today reported a loss of £79million (96m euros) for the final three months of 2021 and warned that 2022 looks equally ‘uncertain’ due to Covid-19.
The budget airline has said it will continue to need to discount fares in the coming months to pick up bookings.
The loss was in line with expectations – but better than the £250million loss in the same quarter of 2020. It last made a profit in the last three months of 2019.
The Irish low-cost airline, Europe’s largest by passenger numbers, reiterated its forecast loss for its full financial year, which ends on March 31, at up to £350million.
Ryanair today reported a loss of £79million (96m euros) for the final three months of 2021
Covid restrictions including testing for travel is hitting airlines, says Ryanair
‘While recent bookings have improved, following easing of travel restrictions, the booking curve remains very late and close-in, so Q4 traffic requires significant price stimulation at lower prices,’ Chief Executive Michael O’Leary said.
The outlook for its fourth quarter, remains ‘hugely uncertain,’ he said.
‘We would caution all shareholders to expect further Covid disruptions before we here in Europe and the rest of the world can finally declare that the Covid crisis is behind us,’ he added.
Ryanair also reaffirmed its expectation that it would fly just under 100million passengers this financial year.
Rivals easyJet and Wizz have both said they expect strong demand for summer holidays, but Wizz said excess capacity in the coming months could weight on profitability.
Holiday firms have reported booming demand ahead of half term as Britain’s airlines yesterday called for remaining Covid travel restrictions to be axed.
‘Click throughs to bookings’ – where people make online searches then continue to the booking page – were up 67 per cent this month compared with December, according to flight search website Skyscanner.
Meanwhile, a string of travel firms and airlines have reported strong increases in demand since the government ended a requirement for pre-flight testing and costly PCR tests after arrival in the UK.
In the wake of that announcement, on January 5, Virgin Atlantic and Jet2 both reported 150 per cent week-on-week surges in web visits and bookings.
In the same period, British Airways said searches on its website for European summer holidays rose 65 per cent in a week and travel website Expedia reported a 145 per cent increase in searches by UK customers for holidays abroad.
Ryanair missed its targets in December after the spread of Omicron forced governments to reimpose restrictions on international travel.
The business said it had carried 11.3 million passengers in October and 10.2 million in November.
But despite the holidays, just 9.5 million passengers travelled with Ryanair in December, far below its 11 million target.
‘The sudden emergence of the Omicron variant and the media hysteria it generated in December, forced many European governments to reimpose travel restrictions in the run-up to Christmas, which significantly weakened peak Christmas and New Year bookings and fares,’ the business said.
The budget airline has said it will continue to need to discount fares in the coming months to pick up bookings
But Ryanair still saw a strong recovery from the worst parts of the pandemic. During the three last months of 2021, it said, 31.1 million passengers travelled on its planes, nearly four times more than a year earlier.
And it is also showing confidence going into the vital summer season. This summer Ryanair is selling 14% more tickets than it had in the last summer before Covid, in 2019.
The business said that it expects to carry just under 100 million passengers in its financial year, which ends in March.
This is unchanged from December when the figure was downgraded from more than 100 million.
However, the company is having to discount more tickets to get passengers onboard, so its expected losses have gone from between 100 million euro and 200 million euro (£83 million to £166 million) to a new forecast of between 250 million euro and 450 million euro.
‘This outturn is hugely sensitive to any further positive or negative Covid news flow, and so we would caution all shareholders to expect further Covid disruptions before we here in Europe and the rest
