Ryanair has announced it lost a €1 million less in the third quarter of 2010 than 2009 but was still disappointed as it had hoped to break even.
The low cost airline released figures today which showed its full year profit guidance remained the same at €380 to €400m, and said that bad weather and air strikes had hampered its planned return to break-even on losses.
In the same figures, quarterly traffic grew 6% to 17 million and fares rose 15%. Total revenues grew by 22% to €746m.
Said chief executive officer Michael O’Leary: “This small Q3 loss of €10m is disappointing, as we were on track to break even, but earnings were hit by a series of ATC strikes/walkouts in Q3, compounded by a spate of bad weather airport closures in December.
“The scale of these disruptions is evident by the fact that we cancelled over 3,000 flights in Q3, compared to over 1,400 cancellations during the previous fiscal year.”
O’Leary added that ancillary revenues had grown by 20%, much higher than traffic growth, and that he believed that short haul fuel charges imposed by many of Europe’s airlines plus their higher fares had created scope for Ryanair to grow at “slightly higher fares”.
It is not unusual for airlines to experience losses in the third quarter of a year as this is usually the quietest period for business.
Easyjet and Air Berlin revealed last week that the strikes and bad weather had also taken a heavy toll on their finances, saying they had cost them £31 million and €30 million respectively.
By Dinah Hatch
