Ryanair says it has contingency plans in place in case the UK Government fails to secure a Brexit Open Skies agreement.
Sharing its first quarter results with investors today, it said it was still concerned about the uncertainty surrounding the terms of the UK’s departure from the EU in March 2019.
"While we continue to campaign for the UK to remain in the EU Open Skies agreement, we caution that should the UK leave, there may not be sufficient time, or goodwill on both sides, to negotiate a timely replacement bilateral which could result in a disruption of flights between the UK and Europe for a period of time from April 2019 onwards," it said.
It said, like all airlines, it needs clarity before it publishes its summer 2019 schedule in the second quarter of 2018.
"If we do not have certainty about the legal basis for the operation of flights between the UK and the EU by autumn 2018, we may be forced to cancel flights and move some, or all, of our UK based aircraft to Continental Europe from April 2019 onwards," it said, adding that it has contingency plans in place.
The warning came as it announced a 55% rise in Q1 profit to €397 million, but said the result was distorted by Easter falling in Q1 this year.
Traffic grew 12% to 35 million and load factor was 96%.
Average fares rose by 1% to just over €40.
Chief Michael O’Leary said the benefit of Easter was offset by the weak pound, the terror attacks in Manchester and London and lower bag revenue as more customers switch to its two free carry-on bag policy.
Looking forward, Ryanair said it is still expecting its first half average fares to be down by 5% as capacity rises by almost 11% and checked bag revenue continues to steeply decline.
It is still expecting its full year post tax profit to remain in a range of €1.40 billionn to €1.45 billion, with a marginal rise in passenger numbers of 1 million to 131 million.
