Ryanair narrows losses, expects return to profitability in FY23

Budget airline Ryanair posted a narrowing of its full-year losses on Monday as it said it expects to return to profitability in FY23.

For the year to the end of March 2022, the company posted a net loss of €355m versus a loss of €1.02bn the year before, as it recovered from the worst of the pandemic. Meanwhile, revenues were up 193% at €4.80bn and customer numbers were 253% higher at 97.1m. The company said it plans to grow FY23 traffic to 165m.

While bookings have improved in recent weeks, Ryanair said pricing still requires “stimulation” due to the damaging impact of the Omicron variant and the Ukraine conflict.

Still, it pointed to pent-up demand and said it was "cautiously optimistic" that peak S.22 fares will be "somewhat ahead" of peak S.19 pre-Covid levels.

The airline said that despite limited first-half visibility and almost zero visibility for the second half, 20% unhedged fuel and the significant risks posed by both the invasion of Ukraine and Covid, it hopes to return to "reasonable profitability" in FY23.

"This recovery, however, remains fragile," it cautioned. "This was clearly evidenced by the sudden, and unexpected, emergence of the Omicron variant pre-Christmas and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, both of which immediately damaged close-in bookings and yields for the Christmas and Easter peak travel periods.

"Given the continuing risk of adverse news flows on both these topics, it is impractical (if not impossible) to provide a sensible or accurate profit guidance range at this time."