RYANAIR SAYS it increased its passenger traffic 13 per cent to 65.3 million passengers in 2009, and has dismissed rumours it was planning a third bid for rival Aer Lingus.
The no-frills carrier said it was “highly unlikely” it would make another attempt to buy the airline as long as the Government held on to its 25 per cent stake.
“There is no truth or basis to recent Irish media speculation that Ryanair is preparing a third bid for Aer Lingus,” it said in a statement.
“We have twice made an offer to the Government at ludicrously generous pricing terms to acquire their share in Aer Lingus,” chief executive Michael O’Leary said. “We’re not going to try and persuade them for a third time.”
Ryanair increased traffic figures in December by 12 per cent to 4.9 million, with load factor increasing 2 per cent to 82 per cent compared to a year earlier. The load factor shows the average number of seats filled on each aircraft.
Mr O’Leary said the company was on target to carry more than 66 million passengers for the current fiscal year and that it planned to significantly decrease capital expenditure.
“With the unsuccessful termination of our talks with Boeing for a 200-aircraft order in December, planned capital expenditure will now decline from €1.2 billion in the current year to as little as €100 million in fiscal year ending March 2013,” said Mr O’Leary.
“We expect our current cash reserves of €2.5 billion to grow substantially by March 2013, and we plan to distribute surplus cash to shareholders from that date.”
The airline, which first sold stock in 1997 and has never paid a dividend, intends to make one-time payments starting at the end of its fiscal year in March 2013, Mr O’Leary said during a conference call.
“We expect the distribution to be lumpy and irregular,” he told investors and analysts by telephone. “What I don’t want people to do is to start putting in an annual dividend stream.”
He did not specify whether the entire surplus would be paid out to shareholders or the size of any payouts.
Mr O’Leary (48) reiterated in the call that he was likely to step down as chief executive in two or three years.
Ryanair also said it had hedged 50 per cent of its fuel requirement for the year ending March 2011, at about $720 a tonne. – (Additional reporting: Bloomberg)
