Ryanair profits surge after hiking fares by 20%

No-frills airline Ryanair has reported a strong rise in full-year profits after raising its fares by more than a fifth.

However, the carrier hinted that fare increases were easing, with peak summer prices set to be only “modestly ahead” of last year.

Profits for the year to March jumped 34% to €1.92bn (£1.64bn) despite a sharp rise in fuel costs.

Ryanair, which has been hampered in its expansion plans by delays to the delivery of new Boeing planes, said it could carry 200 million customers this year if the new aircraft are delivered on schedule.

It said there was a risk the deliveries could “slip further”, but airline boss Michael O’Leary said he thought this was “unlikely”.

However, Ryanair said it would be short of about 23 Boeing 737s that were due to be delivered by the end of July.

The carrier said it was continuing to work closely the aerospace giant to improve quality and increase the pace of deliveries.

Boeing’s planes have come under intense focus once again after the company was plunged into a crisis in January when a panel on one of its aircraft blew out in mid-air.

Scrutiny over Boeing’s plane manufacturing processes has led to a slowdown in deliveries.

Boeing boss Dave Calhoun has said he will step down from the planemaker at the end of the year.

Mr O’Leary said Ryanair welcomed Boeing’s management changes, and “already we’re seeing improved quality on our aircraft deliveries but sadly not yet enough progress on accelerating those deliveries”.

He said Ryanair would receive compensation from Boeing for the delays, although it would be “modest” and did not reflect the cost to the airline of having to cut back its growth plans.

Ryanair – like many of its rivals – has continued to enjoy the surge in demand for air travel that has been under way ever since the Covid pandemic restrictions were lifted.

In the past few weeks, British Airways owner AIG and EasyJet have both been forecasting strong demand for flights this summer.

Ryanair carried 183.7 million passengers over the year to March, with average fares up 21% to €49.80.

It said it had seen record trading last summer, and strong traffic over Easter in March.

However, this was offset by a fall in numbers at the end of last year, after Ryanair flights were removed from several online travel agents.

The airline said bookings for this summer were ahead of last year, although fares were not as high as it had expected.

But it added it was “cautiously optimistic” that fares in the peak of the summer would be “flat to modestly ahead” of last year.

Ryanair did not give any profit forecasts for the current year, saying that was “heavily dependent” upon avoiding adverse events such as the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, extensive air traffic control disruptions or further Boeing delivery delays.

BBC