Ryanair soars to record profit on strong summer

Budget airline Ryanair on posted record interim profits driven by summer bookings and said expected full-year profits to hit pre-Covid levels.

The carrier also upgraded passenger forecasts as it posted a €1.37bn after-tax profit in the six months to September 30, compared with a €48m loss last year due to pandemic restrictions on travel. It also said it would hit at least €1bn of earnings this year.

"Concerns about the impact of recession and rising consumer price inflation on Ryanair’s business model have been greatly exaggerated in recent months," said chief executive Michael O'Leary.

"We expect these strong fundamentals will continue to underpin robust traffic and average fare growth for the next 18-months at least," he said.

O’Leary forecast very strong growth in profit and traffic over the next three years assuming oil prices remain relatively stable, but also warned that forecasts were “hugely dependent on not suffering adverse events this winter, as we did last, which were clearly beyond our control” when the Omicron Covid variant hit winter bookings.

Bookings in November and December remain strong but the airline said it had very little visibility for the first three months of 2023.

The no-frills airline lifted annual passenger forecasts to 168 million from 166.5 million, well ahead of its previous annual record of 149 million reached before the pandemic.

O’Leary added that Ryanair would bring forward full pre-Covid pay-restoration to December this year from April on the back of the strong performance.

The airline will write to unions including the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association, that have yet to agree pay-restoration deals asking them to restart talks. Ryanair earlier this year agreed with most of its unions to restore full pay in April 2023, two years ahead of originally scheduled, subject to how well the business performed.

However, there was also a warning that delays in deliveries of Boeing's Gamechanger aircraft would weigh on the business.

“Our growth is being hampered by Boeing’s inability to meet its delivery schedule in Q3, despite their previous assurances that Ryanair deliveries would be ‘prioritised’,” said O’Leary.

“We expect Boeing will only deliver 10 or 12 of the contracted 21 Gamechangers due before Christmas. Boeing assure us that they will deliver all scheduled 51 Gamechangers ahead of peak summer 2023, although there is a risk that some of these deliveries could slip.”

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com