AUS
NZ
UK
CA
USA
IND
.jpg)
Summary
- The company flew merely 27.5 million passengers till the end of March this year.
- Ryanair reported delays in the delivery of its first 737 MAX aircraft.
- The company foresees a strong recovery in the coming year but expects to only break-even as there is uncertainty surrounding the lifting up of travel restrictions.
Aviation companies suffered a lot during the pandemic, when all the means of revenue generation closed, and operational costs continued. Ryanair Holdings Plc (LON: RYA) reported an annual loss of €815 million for the period ending 31 March. It was the firm’s largest annual loss to date.
The company has though reported that various cost reduction measures were implemented during the year across all the group. It introduced lower cost as a result of bringing in wage cuts, efficient new aircraft and reduced airport costs.
The company expects a strong recovery in air travel post September, by then most of the European populations are likely to get vaccinated. However, even then, it expects to merely break even in FY2022 with huge uncertainty surrounding lifting of coronavirus-related restrictions. The main uncertainty revolves around the timing of the recovery. Moreover, there was little clarity over the fares that customers would be willing to pay into the coming major travel period between June and September.
Europe’s largest discount airline flew 27.5 million passengers during FY 21, drastically down from the previous year’s value of 149 million.
Michael O'Leary, Group CEO, said that the easing out of the travel-related restrictions in Britain saw Ryanair’s weekly bookings springback dramatically in recent weeks, tripling in five weeks from 500,000 to 1.5 million.
The company shares (market capitalisation: £16.11 billion) were up 0.33 per cent at the LSE on 17 May at 13.52 PM from its previous close to touch at 16.99 euros.
On the other hand, its competitor, Easyjet Plc (LON: EZJ) was down by 1.49 per cent to GBX 999.80 on 17 May at 13.54 PM.
Also Read: Aviation Stocks Fall After UK Govt Releases ‘Green List’ For Future Travel
Financial highlights
- The company made a loss of €815 million for FY21 (FY20: profit of €1,002 million).
- The group’s FY21 revenue decreased sharply by 81 per cent to €1.64 billion.
- There was an 81 per cent reduction in total passenger traffic during FY 21 to 27.5 million.
- The firm had cash worth €3.15 billion on 31 March 2021.
- The group’s operating costs fell 66 per cent for the year to €2.48 billion.
- The airline company expects Q1 2022 traffic to lie between 5 million and 6 million.
- The group raised €1.95 billion in new finance during the financial year 2021.
- The company is continuously working to incentivise sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) use across the European Union. The aviation company aims to power 12.5 per cent of its flights with SAF by the year 2030.
- The group minimised job losses via agreed pay cuts and participation in government job support schemes.
- However, the airline had to slash its total capacity by 80 per cent and shed 1,000 jobs during the 12-month period. The group reported delays in the delivery of its first 737 MAX aircraft. However, the company did not indicate if the delay would have any impact on its overall capacity plans.
Also Read: Aviation Sector Wants Most of The Europe In Green List, WIZZ, IAG and RYA in Focus
