Ryanair has warned it expects a loss of almost £300m as passenger numbers remain below pre-pandemic levels.
The budget airline today issued new guidance for the financial year as it said bookings had “recovered strongly” but were still more than a third below pre-Covid figures.
The Dublin-based company said it will report a net loss of between 350m euros (£294m) and 400m euros (£336m) for the year to the end of March. Ryanair had previously guided the market to a loss of between 250m euros (£210m) and 450m euros (£378m).
Read more: EasyJet cancel 200 flights due to high Covid rates among staff
In the previous financial year the airline fell to an 815m euro (£702m) loss after an 81% plunge in customer traffic due to pandemic restrictions.
Shareholders were told today that passenger numbers increased to more than 97m for the year to March, compared with 27.2m 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 149m customers.
Ryanair is set to release full results next month. Ahead of that announcement, the group confirmed today that it had increased its hedging to cover 80% of its fuel amid ongoing oil price volatility caused by the war in Ukraine. It also said it had cut its net debt from 2.3bn euros (£1.9bn) to 1.5bn euros (£1.25bn).
In a separate update, Ryanair said that it had 11.2 million passengers last month, representing its strongest month since October.
This morning, rival EasyJet said it was being forced to cancel many flights because of high levels of sickness among employees caused by Covid. Some 222 trips have been axed since Friday.
