Airlines typically make the bulk of their profits during the summer months when demand for leisure flying is at its highest, and often lose money over the winter.
Ryanair said that forward bookings were robust heading into the peak Christmas travel period, but added that its full-year results would be affected by a big increase in fuel costs.
Despite this, Ryanair is still expecting profits for the full year to be between €1.85bn and €2.05bn, which would be a record high.
However, it warned that this remains “highly dependent on the absence of any unforeseen adverse events (for example, such as Ukraine or Gaza) between now and the end of March 2024”.
The EU is to look into the level of fare increases that airlines have imposed this summer, the EU’s transport commissioner has told the Financial Times., external
The European Commission cannot control air fares, but Adina Valean told the FT that the EU was looking into “what is exactly going on in the market and why”.
EU data released last month showed average air fares were up by 20-30% this summer compared with the pre-pandemic period of 2019.
Shanti Kelemen, chief investment officer at M&G Wealth, told the BBC’s Today programme that one advantage Ryanair had over its competitors was that it had a lot less debt.
“That just gives them more of an advantage in terms of the fares they can offer relative to their competitors,” she said.
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