Ryanair H1 Loss Narrows On Strong Traffic; To Create 5,000 New Jobs; Sees Loss In FY22

(RTTNews) - Low fares airline Ryanair Holdings Plc. (RYA.L, RYAAY) reported Monday that its first-half net loss attributable to equity holders of parent narrowed to 47.6 million euros from last year's 410.5 million euros.

Loss before tax was 99.9 million euros, compared to loss of 432.3 million euros a year ago.

Revenue for the first half climbed 83 percent to 2.15 billion euros from prior year's 1.18 billion euros.

Traffic rebounded by 128 percent to 39.1 million customers from 17.1 million customers a year ago. Load Factor was 79 percent, up 7 percentage points from 72 percent a year ago.

The company further said its growth plans over the next 5 years will create 5,000 new jobs for pilots, cabin crew and engineers. Ryanair plans to invest over 100 million euros in 2 more high skills, training centres in possibly Spain and Poland during this period.

Looking ahead, Ryanair said that visibility for the remainder of FY22 is very limited, and that its difficult to provide meaningful FY22 guidance.

The company said, "We believe that FY22 traffic has improved to just over 100m and (subject to winter fares) expect to record an FY22 loss of between €100m to €200m. This outturn will be crucially dependent on the continued rollout of vaccines and no adverse Covid19 developments."

The outlook for pricing and yields for the winter of FY22 will be challenging.

Further, Ryanair continues to expect to deliver accelerated growth over the next 5 years, with the growth forecast raised to 50% from 33%. As a result, Ryanair's pre-Covid traffic of 149 million is expected to grow to over 225 million guests p.a. by March 2026. The previous target was 200 million p.a.

The company also said its Board is now considering the merits of retaining the Standard listing on the LSE.