Ryanair Slips To Loss In Q1 As Traffic Plunges; Sees Sequentially Smaller Loss In Q2

(RTTNews) - Low fares airline Ryanair Holdings plc (RYAAY, RYA.L) reported Monday that its first-quarter net loss attributable to equity holders of parent was 185 million euros, compared to last year's profit of 243 million euros.

Loss per share was 0.1694 euro, compared to profit of 0.2136 euro a year ago.

Revenue fell 95 percent to 125 million euros from last year's 2.31 billion euros. The company noted that an 85 percent reduction in costs during the quarter was not sufficient to offset this revenue loss.

The passenger traffic fell 99 percent to 0.5 million passengers from last year's 41.5 million passengers. Load factor was 61 percent, down from 96 percent a year ago.

The company noted that over 99 percent of the fleet was grounded from mid-March to end June as EU Governments imposed flight or travel bans following the Covid-19 pandemic. During this time, the group airlines operated repatriation, rescue & medical emergency flights.

On July 1, the company resumed flights across the majority of its route network.

Looking ahead, Ryanair expects to record a smaller loss in the second quarter than in the first quarter, reflecting a gradual return to flying from July 1.

The company expects to operate approximately 40 percent of its normal July schedule, rising to about 60 percent in August and, hopefully, 70 percent in September.

Further, at this time, the company expects fiscal 2021 traffic to fall by 60 percent to just 60 million from 149 million last year.

"..the Ryanair Group will emerge from the Covid-19 crisis with a much lower cost base, which will be essential to fund lower fares as the Group competes against unlawfully State aided flag carriers," the company noted.

Further updates will be provided at Ryanair's AGM in September.