Ryanair expects challenging winter despite reporting first quarterly profit since beginning of pandemic

Ryanair carried 39.1 million passengers in the six months ended September, 54% fewer than in the same period of 2019. File Picture: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie

Ryanair said it expects a challenging winter still overshadowed by the path of the Covid health emergency even as it reported its first quarterly profit since the crisis.

Chief executive Michael O’Leary said the airline nonetheless remains on course to grow rapidly and will create 5,000 new jobs over the next five years.

The effects of the pandemic continued to show through in its latest financial results over what would normally be its most profitable spring and summer months. Ryanair posted an after-tax loss of €48m for the six months to September which points to having been in the black in the summer quarter.

That marks its first quarterly profit since October-December in 2019 - before the pandemic disrupted travel.

Ryanair carried 39.1 million passengers in the six months ended September, 54% fewer than in the same period of 2019.

However, the airline said that its outlook in the current financial year remains extremely uncertain and the results for the financial year will be weighed by the path of the health crisis and, in part, by fuel costs.

“This out-turn will be crucially dependent on the continued rollout of vaccines and no adverse Covid-19 developments,” the airline said.

Ryanair is expected to turn in a loss of between €100m and €200m for the financial year, which ends on March 31, Mr O'Leary said.

Mr O'Leary, who has said the pandemic offers the best growth opportunities of his three-decade career, in September lifted Ryanair's five-year growth target to fly 225 million passengers a year by 2026, from 200 million previously forecast.

Ryanair nudged up its passenger target for its financial year to March 2022 to "just over" 100 million. It flew 149 million passengers a year before the pandemic.

The airline reiterated it expects to return to pre-Covid profitability in the year ending March 2023.

It also said it was weighing delisting its shares from the London Stock Exchange because the number of its shares traded on the exchange is relatively small compared with the amount traded through the Dublin exchange.

“The migration away from the LSE is consistent with a general trend for trading in shares of EU corporates post-Brexit and is, potentially, more acute for Ryanair as a result of the long-standing prohibition on non-EU citizens purchasing Ryanair's ordinary shares being extended to UK nationals following Brexit,” it said.

Additional reporting: Reuters