Ryanair to post at least £294m loss as passenger numbers recover

Ryanair has warned it expects to post a loss of at least 350 million euros (£294 million) as it narrowed its guidance for the past year.

It came as the budget airliner said its passenger numbers “recovered strongly” but were still more than a third below pre-pandemic levels.

The Dublin-based company said it will report a net loss of between 350 million euros (£294 million) and 400 million euros (£336 million) for the year to the end of March.

Ryanair previously guided the market to a loss of between 250 million euros (£210 million) and 450 million euros (£378 million).

The airline tumbled to an 815 million euro (£702 million) loss in the previous financial year due to an 81% plunge in customer traffic due to pandemic restrictions.

The group told shareholders on Monday that passenger numbers increased to more than 97 million for the year to March, compared with 27.2 million in the year to March 2021.

However, restrictions in some regions, particularly at the start of the financial year, mean it remains significantly below pre-Covid traffic of 149 million customers.

The group, which release its full results next month, said it has reduced its net debt from 2.3 billion euros (£1.9 billion) to 1.5 billion euros (£1.25 billion) over the past year as it continues to stabilise its operations.

Ryanair said it has also increased its hedging to cover 80% of its fuel, amid significant volatility in oil prices sparked by the conflict in Ukraine.

In a separate update, Ryanair said that it had 11.2 million passengers last month, representing its strongest month since October.

It comes after a significant slump during the winter months as the spread of Omicron variant of Covid-19 and related restrictions impacted sentiment.