Hike of 4% in airline’s shares after €341m profit

SHARES in Ryanair jumped nearly 4.5% yesterday, after the airline reported a pre-tax profit of €341 million and announced a special dividend payment of €500m to shareholders.

The return to profitability formed part of a strong set of annual results for the 12 months to the end of March – which also included a 2% jump in revenue to €2.99 billion and a 204% surge in adjusted basic earnings per share to 21.59c.

While the company’s adjusted after-tax profits trebled from €105m to €319m, in the preceding year Ryanair actually made a pre-tax loss of €180.5m after the massive writedown in the value of its 29% stake in Aer Lingus was taken into consideration.