22nd Jul 2024 06:59
(Alliance News) - Ryanair Holdings PLC on Monday said quarterly profit nearly halved, as revenue declined slightly due to lower ticket prices despite carrying more passengers.
The weakness in fares is expected to continue throughout the summer.
The Dublin-based budget airline reported pretax profit of EUR400.8 million for the three months that ended June 30, down 46% from EUR740.7 million a year before.
Total operating revenue was EUR3.63 billion, down 0.6% from EUR3.65 billion. Ancillary revenue - for example from onboard food and drink sales - grew by 10% to EUR1.30 billion from EUR1.18 billion, but scheduled revenue from ticket sales declined by 5.9% to EUR2.33 billion from EUR2.47 billion.
The number of passengers that Ryanair carried in the recent quarter increased by 10% to 55.5 million from 50.4 million a year before, but revenue per passenger declined by 10%. Average fares were down 15% and ancillary revenue per passenger was flat.
Ryanair said the increase in passengers carried was despite delays in receiving new Boeing aircraft. It said it had 156 B737 'game changer' aircraft among its total fleet of 594 planes as of June 30. This was 20 less than budget. The new Boeing jets save Ryanair money by burning 15% less fuel while carrying 4% more people.
Looking ahead, Ryanair said passenger traffic in all of financial year 2025 is expected to grow by 8% to between 198 million and 200 million passengers. While costs are expected to rise only "modestly" this year, passengers fares will remain down.
"While Q2 demand is strong, pricing remains softer than we expected, and we now expect Q2 fares to be materially lower than last summer (previously expected to be flat to modestly up)," Chief Executive Officer Michael O'Leary said in a statement.
"The final H1 outcome is, however, totally dependent on close-in bookings and yields in [August] and [September]. As is normal at this time of year, we have almost zero Q3 and Q4 visibility."
By Tom Waite, Alliance News editor
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