Ryanair Turns To Profit In Q2, Sees Narrower Loss In FY22; Stock Up

(RTTNews) - Shares of Ryanair Holdings Plc. were gaining around 2 percent in London trading after the low fares airline reported Monday a profit in its second quarter, compared to last year's loss, driven by significant growth in demand. Looking ahead for fiscal 2022, the company expects narrower loss.

Regarding the outlook, Ryanair's Michael O'Leary, 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."

In the previous year of 2021, the company's loss attributable to equity holders of parent was 1.02 billion euros or 0.9142 euros per share.

The company said the visibility for the remainder of FY22 is very limited, and that its difficult to provide meaningful FY22 guidance. 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 percent from 33 percent. 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 further said its growth plans over the next 5 years will create 5,000 new jobs for pilots, cabin crew and engineers.

Ryanair, which recently invested 50 million euros in an Aviation Skills Training Centre in Dublin, plans to invest over 100 million euros in 2 more high skills, training centres in possibly Spain and Poland.

The company also said its Board is now considering the merits of retaining the Standard listing on the London Stock Exchange or LSE. Trading on the LSE as a percentage of overall trading volume in Ryanair's ordinary shares has reduced materially during 2021.

For the second quarter, profit before tax was 224.6 million euros, compared to last year's loss of 222.4 million euros.

Net profit attributable to equity holders of parent was 225 million euros, compared to last year's loss of 225.5 million euros. Earnings per share were 0.1975 euro, while prior year's loss was 0.2053 euro.

Operating profit surged to 254.0 million euros from prior year's 10.8 million euros, with a 47 percent drop in total operating expenses to 1.53 billion euros.

Total operating revenues for the second quarter surged 70 percent to 1.78 billion euros from last year's 1.05 billion euros.

Scheduled revenues grew 57 percent year-over-year to 1.08 billion euros, and Ancillary revenues were up 95 percent to 703.0 million euros.

For the first half, attributable net loss narrowed to 47.6 million euros from last year's 410.5 million euros, and revenue climbed 83 percent to 2.15 billion euros.

The first-half 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.

In London, Ryanair shares were trading at 17.08 euros, up 2.03 percent.