By Padraic Halpin
DUBLIN (Reuters) -Ryanair raised the prospect of more than recovering last year’s 7% fare decline after reporting a rise in six-month net profit and nudging up its passenger traffic forecast thanks to earlier-than-expected Boeing deliveries.
After the low-cost airline initially cautiously forecast on Monday that it might recover the average fare decline in the year to March 31, Chief Executive Michael O’Leary later told analysts a strong Christmas may see fares grow 8% year-on-year.
That helped reverse a more than 2% share price dip in early trading to stand 2.3% higher at 26.86 euros by 1125 GMT and close to the all-time high of 26.98 recorded on August 19.
O’Leary said that while fares were a little weaker in November, they were up year-on-year for “strong” early Christmas bookings.
‘TRANSFORMED’ BOEING PRODUCTION SOLIDIFIES GROWTH PLANS
The airline, Europe’s largest by passenger numbers, expects to fly 207 million passengers to end-March, one million more than earlier forecast, after the improved deliveries enabled it to add capacity in the first half and the current quarter.
The carrier said it was confident of receiving by February the six remaining Boeing MAX 8 aircraft from an order that had suffered long delays.
“For the first time in many years we will have a full fleet complement by the time we switch to the summer schedule,” O’Leary said, crediting a “transformation” at Boeing in the last year.
Ryanair also said it would accelerate pilot recruitment, based on its confidence of receiving the first jets of its next order for 150 new MAX 10 on time from early 2027.
The Irish carrier reported a net profit of 2.54 billion euros ($2.96 billion) for the six months to end-September, which is when it typically makes most of its profit due to the northern hemisphere’s busy summer holiday season.
That was up 42% from the same period last year and just ahead of 2.5 billion euros forecast in a Ryanair poll of analysts. Average fares grew by 13% year-on-year.
O’Leary said there was a reasonable prospect that fares would grow by mid-single-digits over the next two or three years.
Ryanair also took advantage of recent price dips to cover 80% of its 2027 fiscal year fuel needs at just under $67 per barrel, compared to $76 a barrel for the rest of the current fiscal year.
($1 = 0.8575 euros)
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Kate Mayberry, Kirsten Donovan and Tomasz Janowski)
