EU vaccine rollout damages Ryanair prospects

… but it hopes to break even.

Reuters reports that e EU’s slow COVID-19 vaccine rollout will damage Ryanair’s prospects in the coming year, Europe’s biggest low-cost airline said on Wednesday, as it indicated a smaller than expected loss for its financial year just completed. 

Ryanair, always linked with introducing a route to Madeira, said it now expected passenger traffic in the year to March 31, 2022, to be towards the lower end of its previous estimate of 80-120 million people. 

“Easter travel restrictions/lockdowns and a delayed traffic recovery into the peak Summer season of this year, due to the slow rollout in the EU of COVID-19 vaccines, means that FY22 traffic is likely to be towards the lower end of our previously guided range”

Ryanair statement

Europe’s largest low-cost carrier flew 27.5 million passengers in the last 12 months, down from 149 million passengers in the year to March 2020, before the pandemic took hold. 

Ryanair could be “close to breakeven”

The airline, one of the harshest critics of European politicians’ handling of the COVID-19 crisis, said that while it was too soon to make meaningful profit guidance for the new financial year, it expected to be “close to breakeven”. Goodbody Stockbrokers said in a note it expected “some adjustment down” from its current €252 million profit forecast for the year to end-March 2022. 

Ryanair, which is due to publish its annual results on May 17, said it expected to announce a net loss of €800-850 million compared to the range €850-950 million previously forecast. The airline had €3.15 billion of cash at the end of March, down from €3.5 billion at the end of December. 

COVID-19 in Madeira: daily updates can be found on an earlier post.

Vaccinations in Madeira: updates can be found on an earlier post.