Ryanair has stated it anticipates its annual budget will close showing a deficit of 1 billion euro.
- Airline forecasts for the current year are now very cautious.
- Where passenger traffic growth was anticipated, now just a stagnation would be hopeful.
- COVID variants affecting all hope of 2021 being a bounce-back year.
After 35 years of positive activity, the coronavirus pandemic has spared no one. The Irish group, Ryanair, is no exception and does not see exciting prospects for improvement nor for the current year.
Between October and December 2020 (third financial quarter), the Irish carrier recorded a net loss of 306 million euro, while in the same period of 2019, the profits had reached 88 million euro.
The closing of the annual budget in the forecasts of Ryanair will be close to approximately one billion euro, as stated by a communication from the carrier.
The forecasts for 2021 is very cautious: Ryanair estimates a collapse in traffic until next Easter and hopes for a recovery in the summer. Consequently, the financial year-end target has been revised downwards: from 35 million passengers to 30 million in the period April 2020 – March 2021.
Ryanair suffered – like the entire travel industry – from the pandemic and travel restrictions during almost all of 2020: third quarter revenue fell 82% to 340 million euro for a total of about 8.1 million passengers carried: 78% less than the previous year.
Prior to the pandemic, Ryanair had estimated a record year for 2020 with the goal of carrying 155 million passengers, positioning itself as the first airline group in Europe and surpassing Lufthansa.
In a video published on the official website of the Irish carrier, the CEO of the group, Michael O’Leary, stressed that the hopes of the holding were those of an improvement in the accounts in the third quarter, hopes made vain by the emergence of the South African and British variants of the virus and by the numerous restrictions put in place before Christmas by the European countries.
In 2021, Ryanair hopes to receive at least 24 Boeing 737 Max aircraft, following the green light by the EU for the return of the aforementioned aircraft.
Last December, the carrier had expanded its initial order to Boeing from 75 aircraft to 210 with the aim of reaching 200 million passengers by 2026.
