Ryanair posts first quarterly profit since 2019, but sees annual loss

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DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ryanair reported on Monday its first quarterly profit since before the onset of COVID-19, but it downgraded its annual forecast to a loss of up to 200 million euros ($231 million) as it sells discounted tickets to fill its planes over the winter.

The Irish airline, which operated more flights this summer than any European rival, posted a profit of 225 million euros for the three months ended September, its second quarter.

That marks its first quarterly profit since October-December, 2019 – before the pandemic disrupted travel.

But the budget airline, Europe’s largest, said it expected to turn in a loss of between 100 million and 200 million euros for the financial year that ends on March 31.

While that is better than the 815 million euro loss posted in the previous year, it is a downgrade from its July forecast of “somewhere between a small loss and breakeven”. The latest forecast does not mention the possibility of breaking even.

“There is no doubt that the remainder of the fiscal year will be challenging, the winter will be tough,” Group Chief Executive Michael O’Leary said in a video presentation.

But keeping prices low and passenger numbers high over the winter will “set us up strongly for a very strong recovery” in passenger numbers and ticket prices into the summer of 2022, he said, forecasting that empty seats per plane would shrink from around 20% to under 10% by next summer.

The airline expects to return to profitability in the year ending March 2023, he said.

Ryanair carried 39.1 million passengers in the six months ended September, more than double the number in the same period last year but 54% fewer than in the first half of its pre-pandemic financial year.

Ryanair said it would fly around 10 million passengers per month over the winter and “just over” 100 million in the year to March. It flew 149 million passengers a year before the pandemic.

O’Leary, who has said the pandemic offers the best growth opportunities of his three-decade career, in September said Ryanair would fly 225 million passengers a year by 2026, up from 200 million previously forecast.

Ryanair reported an after-tax loss of 48 million euros for the six months to September, which includes a 273 million loss in the first quarter. A company poll of analysts had forecast a loss of 43 million euros for the six months.

($1 = 0.8651 euros)