DUBLIN (Reuters) -Ryanair said on Monday that it was unable to provide a comprehensive prediction, but that it hoped to return to “decent profitability” this year despite the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 and the Ukraine conflict, after a reduced yearly deficit.
The largest European airline by a number of passengers reported a loss of 355 million euros ($369.06 million) for the pandemic-affected year that ended on March 31. It also said that it planned to increase its passenger traffic to 165 million this year, up from 97 million last year and a pre-COVID-19 record of 149 million.
Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, said in a statement that it would be “impractical, if not impossible,” until the second half of the company’s fiscal year to give sensible or accurate profit guidance. This is because the conflict in Ukraine and COVID-19 could continue to put bookings at risk.
O’Leary said that, even though reservations had gone up in the past few weeks, he was a little worried that his competitors were exaggerating the summer rebound and that caution was needed going into winter when the economy is expected to go down.
“It’s too fragile, and there are still too many things that can change,” O’Leary said. He also said that Ryanair would do well if any of its markets went into a recession because it has lower costs than its competitors and can offer cheaper rates.
Ryanair Chief Financial Officer Neil Sorahan told Reuters that there had been single-digit percentage increases in ticket prices in recent weeks compared to the same period the year before the pandemic, but fare levels are lower than the company had anticipated.
The airline is cautiously hopeful that peak summer rates would be somewhat above pre-pandemic levels, but O’Leary said that it was hard to estimate what the average fares would be in the second half of the year.
He said that customers were still booking their excursions considerably closer than typical to the departure date.
The full-year pre-exceptional loss of 355 million euros was smaller than the 370 million euro loss predicted by a company poll of experts and the 1 billion euro loss in the previous fiscal year. The airline generated a profit of 1 billion euros in the fiscal year ending in March 2020.
Even if the forecast is worse than predicted, O’Leary said that Ryanair would likely be profitable in the next year, but it will be well below pre-pandemic levels.
(1 dollar = 0.9619 euros)
