Ryanair blames Easter cancellation for first quarter loss

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Ryanair today disclosed a loss of 273 million for the first quarter of its fiscal year, which runs from April to March. The airline attributed some of the blame to the canceled Easter travel season. However, the future looks much brighter as travel restrictions decrease and vaccination rates begin to rise.

Ryanair recorded a loss for the first quarter, partly due to the cancellation of the Easter travel season. Photo: Piotr Mitelski via Ryanair

The past 15 months have not been great for the airline industry as a whole. This is also true for Ryanair. While US carriers posted profits in the previous quarter, Ryanair is still operating at a loss. However, it seems that things are starting to improve in all areas in Europe.

More income, but a bigger loss

In terms of revenue, the first quarter of this year was much better for Ryanair than last year. You only have to look at the airline’s passenger count to understand why. From April to June 2020, the airline carried a paltry 0.5 million passengers. However, this year it increased from 7.6 million to 8.1 million. The increase in the number of passengers was linked to an increase in the load factor to 73%, meaning that each flight operated had more revenue passengers on board.

The increase in the number of passengers allowed the airline’s revenues to climb nearly 200% to 371 million for the quarter. However, this was linked to an increase in operating costs of 116% to 675 million. In total, that means the airline’s loss increased 47% year-on-year to -273 million.

The airline has seen a significant increase in the number of passengers year over year. Photo: Piotr Mitelski via Ryanair What’s next for Ryanair?

Ryanair has revealed that it continues to expect the remainder of the year to be difficult, mainly due to prolonged uncertainty over travel restrictions linked to COVID-19. The airline has seen bookings start to recover since the EU launched its digital health passport. Despite this, the airline revealed that it needs to offer low fairs to attract interest. It may be lower than he would otherwise like.

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Ryanair has revealed that it would be impossible to provide meaningful guidance for the rest of the year as bookings remain quite short. However, the airline believes it will handle 90 to 100 million passengers throughout the year. As such, the airline “cautiously expects” the end result for the whole year to be somewhere between a slight loss and break even. Of course, we’ll have to wait until April of next year to find out what the airline has achieved, and a lot may change between now and then.

The airline expects an increase in the number of flights and passengers. Data: Ryanair and Cirium

Ryanair believes it will take advantage of airlines lost during the pandemic and expects annual passenger traffic to increase to more than 200 million passengers per year over the next five years.

What do you think of Ryanair’s first quarter results? Let us know what you think and why in the comments below!

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