The budget carrier on Monday (16 May) revealed a full-year net loss of €355 million for the year to 31 March 2022, down from in excess of €1 billion a year earlier, while passenger traffic recovered from 27.5 million to 97.1 million – albeit still 35% behind pre-Covid levels. Load factor was 82%, up from 71% in the year to 31 March 2021.
Boss Michael O’Leary, though, said Ryanair planned to grow passenger numbers in its 2022/23 full-year to 165 million, while the group is targeting 225 million annual passengers by full-year 2025/26.
Total revenue increased from €1.64 billion to €4.80 billion (+193%) as passenger numbers recovered, with operating costs increasing from €2.48 billion to €5.27 billion (+113%) in parallel.
Average fares have fallen by more than a quarter (27%) to €27, which Ryanair also attributed to Covid, Omicron and Ukraine, although ancillary revenue has increased to more than €22 per passenger with more people opting for priority boarding and reserved seats.
Looking ahead, O’Leary characterised the market as "fragile". He said people were still booking "much closer in" than was typical at this time of year pre-Covid, adding that the impact of Omicron and Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine meant Ryanair was still having to stimulate demand through discounting.
However, he said the weight of pent-up demand gave Ryanair confidence peak summer 2022 fares would still exceed peak fares in summer 2019.
"Despite limited H1 [first-half] visibility (and almost zero H2 [second-half] visibility), 20% unhedged fuel and the significant risks posed by both the invasion of Ukraine and Covid, we hope to return to reasonable profitability in FY23," said O’Leary.
"This recovery, however, remains fragile. This was clearly evidenced by the sudden, and unexpected, emergence of the Omicron variant pre-Christmas and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, both of which immediately damaged close-in bookings and yields for the Christmas and Easter peak travel periods."
O’Leary added it was "impractical, if not impossible" to provide "sensible or accurate" profit guidance at this time "given the continuing risk of adverse news flows" on Covid and Ukraine.
