10th Jan 2020 07:45
(Alliance News) - Irish budget airline Ryanair Holdings PLC raised its full-year guidance on Friday after a surprising Christmas period and said forward bookings for January to April have risen year-on-year.
The carrier upped its annual profit after tax guidance range to between EUR950 million and EUR1.1 billion, which could represent year-on-year hike of up to 19% from EUR885.0 million.
It previously expected full-year profit after tax for the 12 months to March 31 to fall between the EUR800 million and EUR900 million range.
In an unscheduled statement, the airline said the festive period was "characterised by higher than expected close-in bookings at better than expected yields."
Ryanair added: "On the basis of current trading, Ryanair expects to finish close to the mid-point of this new range."
Forward bookings for the first four months of 2020 are 1% higher year-on-year, with financial 2020 traffic tipped to climb to 8.5% to 154 million, up from previous guidance of growth to 153 million. Traffic in financial 2019 came in at 142 million passengers. Average fares in the fourth quarter are anticipated to be "better than expected".
Despite this, Ryanair's Austrian budget subsidiary Laudamotion continued to underperform, the company conceded, facing "intense" pressure from Germany's flag carrier Deutsche Lufthansa AG's subsidiaries.
As a result of "price competition", Laudamotion's average fares over Christmas were lower than forecast despite traffic growth and high load factors.
Ryanair warned that the unit's losses will widen in financial 2020.
Ryanair said: "Lauda now expects to carry 6.5 million passengers in the year to March 2020 but at average fares that are EUR15 below budget, with the result that Lauda's net loss for the year will widen from under EUR80 million to approximately EUR90 million."
Ryanair will release a third quarter earnings update on February 3, ahead of its full-year report, scheduled on May 18.
Shares in the company closed flat at EUR15.23 each in London on Thursday.
By Eric Cunha; [email protected]
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