27th Jan 2025 08:11
(Alliance News) - Ryanair Holdings PLC on Monday said revenue grew in its financial third quarter, and pretax profit soared, helped by a strong close in festive period bookings.
The Dublin-based budget airline said pretax profit multiplied to EUR143.7 million in the three months to the end of December from EUR2.7 million a year before, as operating revenue rose by 9.7% to EUR2.96 billion from EUR2.70 billion.
The company said the quarterly results were boosted by strong bookings in Christmas and New Year, as well as by higher traffic. However, Ryanair said it continued to suffer from delays in the delivery of new aircraft by Boeing Co.
There were also easier prior year comparisons, as the 2023 festive period was hurt by the online travel agent boycott, which included Booking.com, Kiwi and Kayak.
In the nine months of the financial year so far, revenue grew 3.3% to EUR11.65 billion from EUR11.27 billion in the previous year, but pretax profit fell 10% to EUR2.22 billion from EUR2.46 billion, due to 8% lower air fares, the company said.
Ryanair declared an interim dividend of 22.3 euro cents per share, up 27% from 17.5 cents a year before and in line with its dividend policy.
The carrier said its load factor was unchanged at 92% during the third quarter and was steady in the year-to-date at 94%.
The number of customers increased by 8.5% in the third quarter, to 44.9 million from 41.4 million. In the full-year, customer numbers grew 9.2% to 160.2 million from 146.8 million.
Total operating expenses rose 7.7% in the third-quarter to EUR2.93 billion from EUR2.72 billion. They were up 8.2% in the year-to-date to EUR9.60 billion from EUR8.88 billion.
Higher staff and other costs, due in part to Boeing delivery delays, were partly offset by fuel hedge savings, the carrier said.
Ryanair no longer expects Boeing to deliver sufficient aircraft to facilitate traffic growth to 210 million passengers in financial year 2026. Consequently, it has revised its financial 2026 traffic target to 206 million.
It expects European short-haul capacity to remain constrained in 2025 as both original equipment manufactures, Boeing and Airbus SE, "struggle with delivery backlogs". It also sees impacts from engine repairs and further EU airline consolidation.
Chief Executive Officer Michael O'Leary said: "These capacity constraints, combined with our significant cost advantage, strong balance sheet, low-cost aircraft orders and industry leading operational resilience will, we believe, facilitate Ryanair's low-fare profitable growth to 300m passengers over the next decade."
Ryanair said it expects traffic to reach almost 200 million in the 2025 financial year, subject to no further negative news on Boeing delivery delays.
"While Q3 fares were marginally stronger than the prior year (which was impacted by the OTA boycott in late November 2023), this year's Q4 will not benefit from last year's early Easter, which makes our Q4 prior year comparison very challenging," O'Leary said.
Ryanair said it is "cautiously" guiding profit after tax between EUR1.55 billion to EUR1.61 billion in the 2025 financial year. Profit after tax multiplied to EUR149 million from EUR15 million in the third-quarter but was down 11% to EUR1.94 billion from EUR2.19 billion in the year-to-date. The company reported EUR1.92 billion profit after tax in financial 2024.
"The final FY25 profit after tax outcome remains subject to avoiding adverse external developments between now and the end of March, including the risk of conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle Easter, further Boeing delivery delays and [air traffic control] mismanagement/short-staffing here in Europe," O'Leary said.
Ryanair shares were down 2.9% to EUR19.22 in Frankfurt early Monday.
By Michael Hennessey, Alliance News reporter
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