“New COVID-19 reality” leads to €197m loss for Ryanair

Budget airline Ryanair has reported a loss of €197m in the first half of the year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The firm, which reported a profit of €1.15bn for the same period of the previous year, has seen its traffic fall by 80 per cent to 17.1 million passengers.

The airline saw 99 per cent of its fleet grounded from mid-March to the end of June as a result of the coronavirus crisis and subsequent travel restrictions.

In its trading statement this morning, Ryanair commented: “Revenue fell by 78 per cent to €1.18bn as traffic fell 80% to 17.1m.

“With almost zero Q1 traffic, the vast majority of H1 revenue was earned in Q2. Ancillary revenue performed strongly as more guests chose priority boarding and reserved seating.”

Despite the drop in passenger numbers and revenue, the company remains optimistic about growth opportunities that may present themselves next year.

The firm continued: “During the half-year substantial work has been undertaken to successfully improve Ryanair’s long term cost leadership. The group has agreed modest pay cuts with our people and their unions which helped minimise job losses.

“Our Route Development teams are working with airports partners across Europe who have suffered steep traffic declines and discussions are ongoing with aircraft suppliers to amend pricing to reflect the new Covid-19 reality.”

“We expect intra-European air travel capacity to remain subdued for the next few years. This will create opportunities for Ryanair (Europe’s lowest cost airline) to grow its network, and expand its fleet, to take advantage of lower cost airport and aircraft opportunities that will inevitably arise.”