DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ryanair on Monday reported after-tax profit of 663 million euros for the period from April to the end of June, well above pre-pandemic levels, but lowered its passenger growth forecast for 2023 due to delays in the delivery of Boeing planes.
The Irish carrier, Europe’s largest by passenger numbers, said it had already received indications from Boeing that some deliveries of 737-8200s aircraft could be delayed from April 2024 to June 2024, with a likely impact on this winter and next spring.
Ryanair now expects traffic to increase by 9% by March 2024 and reach around 183.5 million people, down from the 185 million originally forecast.
Ryanair’s fiscal first quarter profit quadrupled from the 170 million euros recorded a year ago when air travel resumed post-COVID-19. It beats the previous record for the period, which was 397 million euros in 2017.
The company’s chief financial officer Neil Sorahan told Reuters he was less concerned about the delays than a few months ago, with recent delays more related to factors beyond the planemaker’s control.
Ticket prices for bookings in the July-September quarter, typically the most profitable time of year for Ryanair, are expected to rise year-on-year by a double-digit percentage, Ryanair said.
(Padraic Halpin report; Victor Goury-Laffont, edited by Kate Entringer)
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