Irish airline Ryanair has sharply reduced its net loss in the 2021/22 financial year, thanks to the restart of traffic with the lifting of health restrictions, and hopes to return to profits in the current financial year.
The net loss amounted to 355 million euros (370.5 million francs) for the financial year ended at the end of March, against 1 billion euros during the previous financial year, the company announced Monday in a press release.
Turnover almost tripled to 4.8 billion euros, with a sharp increase in the number of passengers transported.
After carrying 27.5 million passengers on its routes in 2020/21, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ryanair carried some 97 million passengers in 2021/22, which is still well below the 149 million before the pandemic.
For the 2022/2023 financial year, Ryanair anticipates increasing to 165 million passengers.
The ‘low-cost’ carrier points out that ‘the harmful effect of the Omicron variant and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February’ have resulted in still low prices.
Given the looming demand, however, Ryanair says it is reasonably optimistic and believes that fares for this summer “will be a little higher than those of the 2019 summer season”, before the pandemic.
In the midst of soaring oil and fuel prices, the company says it has covered 80% of its kerosene purchases for the year just starting, but the 20% not covered ‘will lead to unbudgeted cost increases’.
Ryanair says it has largely reduced its debt during its last financial year, to 1.45 billion euros against 2.3 billion previously.
‘Despite limited visibility in the first half and almost no visibility for the second, 20% uncovered fuel and the significant risks posed by the invasion of Ukraine and the Covid, we hope to return to reasonable profitability during our financial year. 2023. However, this recovery remains fragile,” comments Ryanair.
In view of these uncertainties, the company does not give any quantified forecasts of results.
/ATS