Ryanair gets off to a flying start as quarterly profit surges

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Ryanair Holdings PLC on Monday said that quarterly revenue and profit soared, thanks to a strong Easter, as well as an extra bank holiday weekend.

The Dublin-based budget airline reported that revenue increased by 40% to €3.65 billion in the quarter ended June 30, from €2.60 billion.

Pretax profit in the company’s first quarter of its financial year surged to €740.7 million from €203.0 million.

Ryanair explained that the improved results were thanks to a strong Easter, the extra UK Coronation public holiday and May and weak prior year comparisons due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which damaged last year’s traffic and fares.

The number of customers increased annually by 11% to 50.4 million from 45.5 million. Load factor improved to 95% from 92%.

Looking ahead, Ryanair said it expects financial 2024 traffic to be up 9% annually to 183.5 million, which is lowed that the 185 million originally anticipated. It explained that this is due to Boeing delivery delays in spring and in autumn.

It noted that whilst bookings in the second quarter have been ‘strong’, the fare increase will be much lower than in the first quarter due to much stronger pricing last year when summer travel ‘snapped back’ following the Ukraine invasion.

It currently expects second quarter fares will be higher year-on-year but by a low double-digit percentage.

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