Ryanair more than doubles annual loss forecast over Omicron impact

Ryanair blamed last weekend's ban on British arrivals into France and Germany, and the suspension of all EU flights to and from Morocco for the drop in its passenger forecast

Ryanair now expects losses of between €100m and €200m in its current financial year due to the impact of additional Covid restrictions on European travel. 

Ryanair has more than doubled its annual loss forecast and cut its January traffic estimate by 33% due to travel restrictions imposed in the wake of the emergence of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

The airline, Europe's largest by passenger numbers, said it expects a net loss of between €250m and €450m in the 12 months to the end of March. That compares with a previous forecast of a loss of between €100m and €200m.

It cut its December passenger forecast to a range of 9 to 9.5 million, from 10 to 11 million. Ryanair blamed last weekend's ban on British arrivals into France and Germany, and the suspension of all EU flights to and from Morocco.

The airline cut its January traffic forecast to between 6 and 7 million, from 10 million.

It said it would wait to revise its February and March schedules until January, "as more scientific information becomes available on the Omicron variant, its impact on hospitalisations, European population and/or travel restrictions".

Ryanair said it now expects to fly just under 100 million passengers in the year to the end of March from an earlier forecast of just over 100 million. "These figures are hugely sensitive to any further positive or negative Covid news flow," it said.

Meanwhile, European discount airline Wizz Air is upping its bid to challenge Ryanair by increasing its presence in the UK after agreeing to buy take-off and landing slots from Norwegian Air Shuttle at London’s Gatwick Airport.

Budapest-based Wizz will acquire 15 daily slot pairs at Gatwick, where operations are restricted by a single runway, allowing it to increase its number of jets there from four to five. While no sale value for the slots was given, the cost has been estimated at €30m-€40m.

Boosting flights in Britain will bring Wizz a bigger share of Europe’s largest low-cost aviation market and help it take on rivals EasyJet, which counts Gatwick as its biggest base, and European market leader Ryanair.

Wizz chief executive Jozsef Varadi has been demanding that the UK return to rules compelling airlines to surrender slots unless they utilise 80% of them after the requirement was watered down at the height of the coronavirus crisis.

- Reuters; additional reporting Bloomberg