A Ryanair passenger plane lands at Cologne/Bonn Airport.
Thomas Banier | Image Alliance | Getty Images
Ryanair Shares fell on Monday after the company said its quarterly profit after tax fell 46% and summer fares would be lower than expected.
As of 11:28 a.m. London time, Ryanair shares fell 14.53%.
this budget airline says Profit after tax for the three months to the end of June (Ryanair’s first quarter) was 360 million euros ($392 million). This compares with 663 million euros in the same period last year, the company said.
Ryanair said lower-than-expected fares and last season’s Easter season were to blame for the drop in profits.
Ryanair said on Monday the figure came despite a 10% increase in passenger traffic during the quarter to 55.5 million. The airline said it will operate its “largest ever flight schedule” this summer, with more than 200 new routes and five new bases.
However, Ryanair Group Chief Executive Michael O’Leary said in a statement that fares were expected to be lower than expected over the next three months.
“While demand is strong in the second quarter, pricing remains below our expectations and we now expect second-quarter ticket prices to be significantly lower than last summer (previously expected to be flat or slightly higher),” he said.
O’Leary added that it was too early to make predictions about the rest of the financial year.
“As always at this time of year, we have almost zero visibility into the third and fourth quarters, although the fourth quarter will not benefit from last year’s early Easter. It is too early to provide meaningful fiscal 2025 PAT guidance.” It’s premature, although we hope to be able to do so in our first-half results in November,” he said.
Other European airlines followed Ryanair lower on Monday, as did other budget airlines EasyJet Shedding exceeds 6%, while squirt 2 Hungarian Airlines fell 4% Wizz Air fell more than 6%.
