The European Union’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 flagged a smaller than expected loss for its financial year just ended.
The Irish company said it now expected passenger traffic in the year to March 31st, 2022, to be towards the lower end of its previously estimate of 80 million to 120 million people.
“Easter travel restrictions/lockdowns and a delayed traffic recovery into the peak summer 21 season 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,” it said in a statement.
Ryanair flew 27.5 million passengers in the last 12 months, down from 149 million passengers in the year to March 2020, before the pandemic had a significant impact.
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 break even”.
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 17th, said it expected to announce a net loss of €800-€850 million compared with €850-€950 million previously.
The airline had €3.15 billion of cash at the end of March, down from €3.5 billion at the end of December.
Its shares were unchanged at €16.95 at 8.44am Irish time on Wednesday . – Reuters