Ryanair delivers huge profit update after hiking price of flights | UK | News
Ryanair has announced a rise in earnings after increasing airfares and early aircraft deliveries that helped it fly more passengers.
The low-cost airline reported pre-tax profits of 2.9 billion euros (£2.6 billion) in the first half of the financial year; This is 40% higher than the same period last year.
Boeing flew 119 million passengers, up 3% on last year, after an improvement in aircraft deliveries meant it could carry extra passengers.
Ryanair has been hit by a slowdown in production following strikes among Boeing workers in late 2024.
But he said the new deliveries would allow it to increase seating capacity during the busiest October school holidays and the Christmas and New Year travel period.
Ryanair announced that average flight ticket prices, which increased over the Easter period, rose 13% year on year to 58 euros (£50.90).
Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, said there had been an “improvement” in the 7 percent decline in airfares in the second quarter of last year, covering the busy summer period between July and September.
But he also criticized “stupid rules” proposed in the EU, including “further increasing free hand luggage limits even though there is no room for those extra bags in the aircraft cabin”.
He said these would “only lead to greater airport security and flight delays, as well as higher costs and higher fees for European consumers.”
However, Ryanair expects to fly 207 million passengers for the full year, 3% higher than the previous year and 3% higher than previously forecast, thanks to Boeing’s earlier-than-expected deliveries and strong demand in the first half.
According to the company, it is unlikely that flight tickets will increase so quickly in the second half of the year due to the price increases made the previous year.
Mr O’Leary said its financial performance “remains vulnerable to adverse external developments, including the escalation of conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, macroeconomic shocks and repeated European ATC (air traffic control) attacks and other effects of mismanagement.”
