4th Apr 2022 09:34
(Alliance News) - Ryanair Holdings PLC on Monday narrowed its annual forecast loss range as it reported a recovery in passenger numbers for March.
In March 2022, the Swords, Dublin-based airline flew 11.2 million passengers, bouncing back from just 500,000 a year ago. This was higher than pre-pandemic figures of 10.9 million in March 2019 and 10 million in March 2018.
This was despite Ryanair cancelling 2,000 flights to and from Ukraine last month due to airspace closures following Russia's invasion.
In total, Ryanair operated over 67,800 flights in March with a load factor of 87%, up from 71% year-on-year.
Ryanair also said full-year traffic recovered strongly to over 97 million from 27.5 million in financial 2021, but remained below pre-Covid traffic of 149 million.
In a newly released annual forecast, Ryanair expects a loss around EUR350 million to EUR400 million, narrowed from a previous guidance range of EUR250 million to EUR450 million, for its financial year ended March 31.
While the range has been trimmed, Ryanair's loss guidance at the mid-point has widened. However, this would still be an improvement on the net loss of EUR815 million in its previous financial year. In its pre-pandemic financial year 2020, Ryanair posted a profit of EUR1.00 billion.
The company will release its financial year 2022 results on May 16.
Shares in Ryanair were down 1.5% at EUR13.33 in Dublin early Monday.
By Tom Budszus; [email protected]
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