Ryanair profits fall by over 20 per cent in first quarter but still expects to hit targets
The low-cost airline Ryanair has announced that its post-tax profits fell by 21 per cent in the first quarter to €78m (£67m) (release).
Passenger numbers grew by three per cent to 23.2m in the same period with revenue up five per cent to €1,342m (£1158m).
Ryanair's CEO, Michael O'Leary, said:
As ever, our outlook remains cautious for the full year as market conditions are tough with recession, austerity, high fuel costs, and excessive Government taxes (most recently in Belgium) impacting air travel demand and yields.
While we expect full year traffic to grow 3% to 81.5m, we still have no visibility over next winter’s yields, and on the basis that the recent yield weakness in close-in summer bookings does not continue, we see no reason to change our full year profit after tax guidance which remains at between €570m to €600m.