(News Bulletin 247) – The Irish airline group has warned that its second-quarter fares will be significantly lower than those of the same period last year. Its first-quarter results are also significantly lower than expected.

Ryanair suffered in the spring. The Irish low-cost airline published its results on Monday for the first quarter of its 2024-2025 financial year, the period from April 1 to June 30.

The number of passengers carried has, indeed, increased by 10% over one year to 55.5 million. But the average fare per passenger has fallen by 15%. The company has suffered in particular from the Easter holidays that arrived earlier in 2024 and which have thus supported the fourth quarter of its previous financial year, ending at the end of March 2024.

As a result, Ryanair’s revenue fell 1% year-on-year in the first quarter, while its operating costs rose 11% over the same period. The group said its costs were driven by increases in staff numbers and costs related to delays in deliveries at Boeing.

Its operating profit fell 49% to 365.7 million euros while its profit fell to 360 million euros, down 46% year-on-year. This profit is about 30% below the consensus of 518 million euros, according to Deutsche Bank.

Glacial outlook for the market

Beyond these disappointing results, the low-cost airline has lowered its price forecast for the summer quarter, the period which corresponds to its second quarter.

The group said that while demand is “high”, the pricing environment remains “weak” and its prices are now expected to be “significantly lower” compared to summer 2023, whereas the company had previously expected prices to be stable or slightly higher.

“The final result of the first half, however, depends entirely on bookings and yields in August and September,” Ryanair continued.

The Irish group’s communication on its prices for the second quarter “should weigh on Ryanair’s shares and those of the sector this morning”, estimates Deutsche Bank.

The outlook for second-quarter tariffs is effectively being taken as a profit warning by the market. On the Dublin Stock Exchange, Ryanair shares fell by 15.5% at around 2:30 p.m.

The poor publication of the Irish company has had quite mixed repercussions on the other listed groups in the airline sector. Easyjet plunged by 8% in London and Wizz Air, a Hungarian low-cost, lost 9.7% while IAG, the parent company of British Airways and Iberia, only lost 3.8%. In Frankfurt, Lufthansa limited its decline to 1% while in Paris, Air France-KLM lost 1.2%.