Ryanair first-half profit jumps over 70% amid strong summer

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No-frills airline Ryanair Holdings PLC on Monday announced that net profit surged 72% in its first half, thanks to higher fares and record traffic during the peak summer season.

Profit after tax came in at €2.2 billion in the six months to the end of September compared with €1.3 billion in the equivalent period one year earlier, Ryanair said in a statement.

Chief Executive Michael O’Leary said the carrier’s full-year outlook ‘remains highly dependent on the absence of any unforeseen adverse events – for example such as Ukraine or Gaza – between now and the end of March’.

The aviation sector is enjoying a strong recovery after suffering heavy losses at the start of the decade when the Covid pandemic grounded flights worldwide.

‘Ryanair Holdings reported a strong half-year profit... thanks to a strong Easter in the first quarter, record summer traffic and higher fares which offset significantly higher fuel costs,’ the company statement said Monday.

Traffic grew 11% to 105 million passengers, while average fares jumped by almost one quarter.

O’Leary said the company expects full-year net profit of between €1.85 billion and €2.05 billion – a forecast that assumes ‘modest losses’ over the winter.

He added that the outlook was clouded by uncertainty over the delivery of new Boeing Co planes, ‘a significantly higher full-year fuel bill, very limited fourth-quarter visibility and the risk of weaker consumer spending over coming months’. 

Boeing last month reported another hefty loss as it trimmed its full-year forecast for deliveries of the 737 to address a manufacturing problem on the aircraft.

source: AFP

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