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Ryanair profit jumps despite terror attacks and strikes
Ryanair’s full-year profits for 2015/16 jumped 43% to €1,242 million despite the impact of the Brussels terrorist attacks and strikes.
The airline said it was forced to cancel more than 500 flights in the last quarter of its financial year following the Brussels attack and repeated strikes by air traffic controllers, mainly in France.
It warned that the first quarter of this year will be hit by further strikes by Italian, Greek, Belgian and French ATC unions, which caused more than 200 cancellations.
The period will also be impacted by lower fares, the absence of Easter in April and Sterling weakness in the run up to the Brexit referendum on June 23, it said.
For the 12 months to end of March 2015, Ryanair’s traffic grew 18% to 106 million as load factor jumped 5% points to 93%.
Average fare dropped 1% to €46 as unit costs fell 6%.
Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said the airline’s ‘Always Getting Better’ programme was attracting millions of new customers to its ‘lowest fare/lowest cost’ model.
He said while the first two years of the programme were about ‘fixing things that our customers disliked and improving our offering’, this coming year will be about ‘digital acceleration and innovation’.
"This year’s initiatives will include a new Leisure Plus service, improved Business Plus, a ‘One-Flick’ payment facility on our mobile app, auto check-in for ‘My Ryanair’ customers and lower checked bag fees," he said.
Looking forward, Ryanair said it was, on average, 2% better booked for the peak summer months than this time last year but at lower fares.
It expects its 2016/17 load factors to be similar to last year and to grow traffic by 9% to 116 million.
"Pricing however will be softer, particularly in quarter 1 and quarter 4, neither of which have any Easter holiday benefits and capacity additions in Europe are higher than in previous years as hedged competitors enjoy falling oil bills," it said today.
It expects full year net profit to rise modestly, by around 13% to a range of €1,375 million to €1,425 million.
"This guidance remains heavily dependent on the strength of close-in summer bookings and next winter’s yields, the strength of Sterling and the absence of any further external shocks or significant ATC strikes/cancellations," it added.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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