28th Jul 2014 06:59
LONDON (Alliance News) - Ryanair Holdings PLC said Monday that the timing of a very strong Easter boosted its first quarter results as it reported higher revenue and pretax profit for the period, leading the company to "cautiously" raise its full-year profit after tax guidance.
The low-cost airline said that in its first quarter to June 30, revenue rose 11% to EUR1.50 billion from EUR1.34 billion in the comparable quarter year. Pretax profit also jumped, coming in at EUR223.6million, compared to EUR88.5 million in 2013.
Ryanair said it flew 24.3 million passengers during the period, up 4% on the 23.2 million flown in the comparative year as load factors rose 4% to 86% for the quarter.
While encouraged by the increases, the company cautioned Monday that its results were "distorted by the timing of a very strong Easter in Q1 with no holiday period in the prior year comparable."
Also boosted by the Easter period, average fare rose 9%, and ancillary revenues were 4% higher, in line with traffic growth, as airport and baggage fee reductions were offset by the rising uptake of allocated seating, said the company.
Ryanair said its new bases at Athens, Brussels, Lisbon and Rome are performing strongly and that its strategy to raise forward bookings continues to drive higher load factors. The company said it expects to release its summer 2015 schedule in mid-September, some three months earlier than last year.
Looking ahead Ryanair said that is on track to deliver a strong first-half, during which traffic will grow by 3%, and fares will rise by 6% subject to late booking fares in August and September, it said, though warned that it continues to operate in a difficult economic environment, and expects to face some company-specific challenges in its second-half.
"We expect H2 to be characterised by a much softer pricing environment as many competitors are lowering fares, partly in response to Ryanair's strong forward bookings... We continue to expect H2 yields to fall by between 6% to 8% which will result in full year yields rising by only 2%," said CEO Michael O'Leary.
The company now expects full-year traffic to rise by 5% to 86 million, and subsequently the company has "cautiously" raised its full-year profit after tax guidance from the previous range EUR580 million to EUR620 million to a range of EUR620 million to EUR650 million.
"However this guidance, which is about a 21% rise over last year's net profit, is heavily, reliant upon the final outturn for H2 yields over which we currently have zero visibility," added O'Leary.
By Alice Attwood; [email protected]; @AliceAtAlliance
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