Europe’s biggest budget airline made €1.43bn (£1.24bn) in profit between April 2022 and March 2023 – which equates to an average of almost £40 per second.
Ryanair said a “strong recovery in traffic and favorable oil hedging” offset the previous year’s loss of €355m (£309m).
Average fares are 10 per cent higher than pre-Covid levels, with “upsells” – extras on top of basic fares – earning €23 (£20) from the typical passenger.
The carrier carried 168.6 million passengers throughout the financial year, up 74 percent from the previous year, which was severely affected by the Covid pandemic. The figure for 2022-23 equates to an average of 462,000 passengers per day, with 93 per cent of seats occupied on a typical flight – up from 82 per cent the previous year.
More than 80 percent of Ryanair’s fuel was “hedged” – bought in advance at well below market prices – which saved the company roughly the same as its total profit over the year.
A Ryanair statement said: “Ryanair was fully staffed to operate its summer 22 schedule, while many competitors canceled capacity (often at short notice) in the face of severe staff shortages.” Advance bookings and airfares are currently strong in Summer 23 and we continue to urge all customers to book early to avoid the “nearby” price increase.
But airline bosses are expecting more air traffic control (ATC) strikes this summer.
Rynair’s results statement said: “In anticipation of further ATC disruptions, we have invested heavily in our operations (increased crew ratios, doubled the size of our operations centres, improved travel day app and continue to improve communications with customers) to ensure our passengers and crew continue to enjoy Ryanair’s industry-leading OTP (on-time results) and reliability.”
The company says it has made “strong market share gains in Italy, Poland, Ireland, Spain and across Europe” as other airlines cut capacity. Ryanair says pay cuts imposed during the pandemic have been “recovered 28 months earlier by agreement for almost all crew”.
Ryanair Group chief executive Michael O’Leary highlighted the airline’s environmental record, saying: “Passengers who switch to Ryanair (from EU legacy airlines) can reduce their emissions by up to 50 per cent per flight. In the past year, we have made significant progress towards becoming net carbon neutral by 2050.
“We are campaigning to speed up the reform of the European ATS to eliminate avoidable flight cancellations/delays, which will significantly reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.”
Looking ahead, Ryanair’s statement said: “We are cautiously optimistic that full-year revenue will grow enough to cover our €1bn (£870m) higher fuel bill and still provide a modest increase in profit on an annual basis. This guidance remains highly dependent on the avoidance of adverse events such as the war in Ukraine or further recurring supply delays to Boeing.
Leave a Reply