Losses at Irish airlines and EasyJet now top €3.6bn

EasyJet has seen its losses widen sharply in its current financial year.

Total financial losses across Irish airlines Ryanair and Aer Lingus and British carrier EasyJet have now topped €3.6bn since the start of the Covid crisis, which has decimated the international travel market over the last 14 months.

EasyJet has posted a £701m (€813m) first-half loss for the six months to the end of March, with the continued havoc caused by Covid dragging revenues for the period down 90% to £240m.

Combined with a near £1.3bn loss for its last full financial year, EasyJet has suffered losses of around £2bn (€2.3bn) due to the Covid disruption. 

When Ryanair and Aer Lingus' woes are added, the three airlines' total losses, during the pandemic, add up to around €3.6bn.

Ryanair, this week, posted an €815m loss for its latest financial year, but said it hopes to break-even in its current year if eased travel restrictions and a completed vaccine rollout allow for European air travel to reopen meaningfully.

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary said the airline has seen strong passenger bookings since April, with orders likely to reach up to 9 million per month by mid-summer.

Over last year and the first three months of this year, Aer Lingus made losses of €464m. 

The Covid impact took a bigger bite this week with Aer Lingus permanently closing its cabin crew base at Shannon Airport and temporarily shutting its base at Cork as part of ongoing headcount reduction and cost-cutting moves.

European airline stocks slid further on the back of EasyJet’s latest update, piling more pressure on an already beleaguered airline industry.

However, EasyJet said it has prepared as much as 90% of its fleet for a return to the skies, this summer, despite persistent doubts over an easing of international travel restrictions and a summer recovery for European aviation.

“We have the ability to flex up quickly to operate 90% of our current fleet over the peak summer period to match demand,” chief executive Johan Lundgren said.

"With leisure travel taking off in the UK again earlier this week where we are the largest operator to Green list countries and with so many European governments easing restrictions to open up travel again, we are ready to significantly ramp up our flying for the summer with a view to maximising the opportunities we see in Europe," he said.

EU states agreed, this week, to ease restrictions on vaccinated visitors, boosting recovery hopes.

Pending deployment of the EU's digital health pass, Bernstein analyst Daniel Roeska said, the announcement was "an important step to opening up EU air travel and should support EasyJet's and other EU airlines' share prices."

"We know there is pent-up demand," Mr Lundgren said.