Between April and September, every minute of every hour of every day 250 people stepped aboard a Ryanair flight, and the average profit made from each of those passengers was £15. But with ferocious competition between airlines in Europe this winter, the giant low-cost airline expects fares to fall this winter, and now expects to make only £3 profit per passenger between October and March.
Ryanair’s profits rose by 7 per cent compared with last summer, to just over £1bn. But two weeks ago the airline issued a profits warning, citing the slump in sterling since the EU referendum and uncertainty over the terms of Brexit.
The airline campaigned heavily for a “Remain” vote in the poll.
The chief executive, Michael O’Leary, told the BBC's Today programme: “I continue to believe sadly that the UK government doesn’t have a clue what it’s trying to achieve.” He said that most of the planned expansion in Britain in the coming year would be “pivoted” to Europe: “We had wanted to add growth by 12 per cent, we’ve cut that back to 5 per cent.”
Ryanair expects fares this winter to fall by 12-15 per cent in euro terms, which — were it applied evenly — would spell a slight rise in sterling terms due to the fall in the value of the pound compared with last winter. But Mr O’Leary said average sterling fares would be lower: “We’re almost on a daily basis doing seat sales.”
ACI Europe, representing the continent’s airports, reported a 9.7 per cent surge in passenger numbers at Ryanair’s HQ, Dublin airport in July, August and September. The summer also saw strong growth at two major UK airports: Birmingham up 9.7 per cent, and Gatwick 6.5 per cent higher.
The five main hubs in Europe — Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Istanbul-Atatürk, Frankfurt and Amsterdam Schiphol — collectively saw no significant growth during the summer.
