22nd Oct 2018 06:54
LONDON (Alliance News) - Ryanair Holdings PLC on Monday said profit decreased in the first half of its current financial year due to the higher fuel costs and compensation of passengers affected by flight delays and cancellations.
The Irish budget airline said pretax profit for the six months ended September 30 declined 13% to EUR1.26 billion from EUR1.45 billion reported for the same period a year earlier, despite revenue improving by 8.1% to EUR4.79 billion from EUR4.43 billion.
Ryanair said higher fuel, staff and compensation costs offset the strong revenue growth. In addition, average fares declined 3% to EUR46 due to excess capacity in Europe, an earlier Easter in the first quarter, and repeated air traffic controllers' strikes.
Meanwhile, traffic improved by 6% on year during the period to 76.6 million, while load factor remained flat at 96%.
The budge carrier also noted it returned EUR540 million in the first half to shareholders through a share buybacks.
Looking ahead, Ryanair said it now expects annual traffic growth of 6% to 138 million passengers - slightly down on previous guidance of 139 million - following a 1% reduction in winter capacity. The airline's fuel bill is expected to come in about EUR460 million higher year-on-year, while other costs will grew on passenger compensations.
It guided after tax profit for all of financial 2019 to the end of March to be between EUR1.10 billion and EUR1.20 billion, excluding recent acquisition Laudamotion.
However, Ryanair noted that this guidance remains heavily dependent on air fares not declining further, and the the absence of unforeseen strikes and negative Brexit developments.
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