Ryanair expects annual losses near middle of forecast range
Ryanair’s losses are expected to near the middle of its forecast range, chief executive Michael O’Leary announced today.
“We think we’ll be somewhere in the middle of that range,” O’Leary said referring to the airline’s forecast loss of between €250m and €400m.
The chief executive explained that whether the company reports profits for the financial year ending March 2023 depends on traffic recovery and fares.
“There’s a chance but it all depends on pricing,” he told journalists during the Airlines for Europe conference in Brussels. “I mean, certainly our costs are reasonably robust for the next 12 months.”
A war-fuelled increase in oil prices as well as a very public feud with Boeing feature among the challenges Ryanair will need to face.
O’Leary said in early March that the impact on oil prices would cost the airline an additional €50m even though Ryanair hedged out its fuel needs to March next year.
“We do have a 20 per cent [to be bought] and that will cost us probably another €50m over the next 12 months, which is not a huge amount but it certainly makes the post-Covid recovery much more difficult.”
As for Boeing, the airline’s boss said he was prepared for a deal with Boeing to purchase 737 MAX 10 jets to fall through, as the carrier is expecting around 200 aircraft to be delivered within the next five years.
“There are many times in my life that I missed the market, there’s always that possibility,” he told Reuters. “But you know, even if we have, we’re very content where we are; we have 210 aircraft deliveries to take over the next five years.”
Over the last few months the two have been at odds over pricing, with O’Leary saying last month the plane manufacturer was “busy losing customers around Europe and the world.”
Despite difficulties, the airline expects traffic to grew from between 95 and 98 million registered this year to 165 million in FY2023.
“Pre-pandemic we carried around 150 million passengers, this year we expect to increase that to 165 million,” O’Leary said.