OVER €500 IN SAVINGS IN  5 MONTHS

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (Thurs, 31 July) released its exclusive “Prime Member” offer for August, giving members €50 off return flights operating between 30 October to 27 November. This exclusive 72hr sale is available only to Ryanair Prime members, so sign up before this 3-day sale goes live on Fri, 1 August, to save on fares and other Prime Member benefits, like free reserved seats and free travel insurance.

This August Prime Member sale is the fifth monthly seat sale since Ryanair launched its €79 subscriber discount scheme in March, with Prime members accumulating over €500 in savings to date for a 12-month membership cost of just €79. Ryanair’s five monthly seat sales alone saved Prime members €220, almost triple the €79 cost of Prime membership.

Ryanair CMO, Dara Brady said:

“We’re excited to announce our next exclusive Prime Member seat sale, going live on Fri, 1 August for 72 hours. This time, Prime members will enjoy €50 off return flights for travel between Thursday, 30 October and Thursday, 27 November – the perfect excuse to plan an autumn escape.

Not a Prime member yet? Don’t worry – you can still sign up today and start enjoying exclusive savings and benefits, just like our existing Prime members, who’ve already saved over €500 since we launched Ryanair Prime in March.”

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, has today (22 Jul) announced an extension to its paint agreement with MAAS Aviation. This extension will see the airline undertake 500 aircraft repaints at the MAAS facilities in Maastricht and Kaunas over the next 10 years as it continues to grow its fleet to 800 aircraft, including the airline’s 300 Boeing 737 MAX-10 order, which will see the airline grow to carry over 300m passengers per year by 2034. These fuel-efficient new technology aircraft offer 21% more seats, burn 20% less fuel, and are 50% quieter.

Ryanair’s Chief Operating Officer, Neal McMahon said:

“We are pleased to announce this extended agreement with MAAS aviation for the next 10 years. MAAS have demonstrated excellent standards in their state-of-the-art facilities, and we are delighted to extend our partnership. MAAS successfully completed its 600^th Ryanair aircraft repaint recently, and we look forward to working with them for the next decade of growth as we grow our fleet to 800 aircraft and 300 million passengers.”

CEO at MAAS, Danny Hakker, said:

“The contract extension with Ryanair is a credit to our consistency of craftsmanship and the pride we feel every time one of their aircraft leaves our painting hangars. It’s about teamwork and a desire to go beyond expectations. Our long-term relationship with Ryanair is indicative of both parties’ commitment to getting it right, on time, every time. MAAS operates to the highest standards across all our global painting facilities. Furthermore, we continuously invest in the latest painting technologies and in training our teams of painting experts, to ensure that we consistently operate to the highest of standards.” 

Ryanair Holdings plc today (21 July) reported Q1 profit after tax of €820m, compared to prior-year Q1 PAT of €360m, as traffic grew 4% to 58m passengers at 21% higher fares.

Q1 highlights include:

• Traffic grew 4% to 57.9m.
• Rev. per pax rose 15% (ave. fare up 21% to €51 & ancil. rev. up 3%).
• Unit cost inflation just 1% – cost gap advantage widens.
• Competitive fuel hedges de-risk Group:  c.85% FY26 at $76bbl.
• 181 B737 “Gamechangers” in 618 fleet (incl. 5 deliveries in Q1).
• Over 160 new S.25 routes (total: 2,600 routes).
• 30 spare CFM LEAP engines bought to improve resilience.
• Ryanair added to the MSCI World Index.

Q1 REVIEW

Ryanair Group CEO Michael O’Leary, said:

Revenue & Costs:

“Total revenue rose 20% to €4.34bn.  Scheduled revenue increased 26% to €2.94bn as traffic grew 4% with 21% higher fares.  Q1 fares substantially benefitted from having a full Easter holiday in April, weak prior-year comps and marginally stronger than expected close-in pricing.  Ancillary revenues delivered another solid performance rising 7% to €1.39bn.  Operating costs rose 5% (+1% per pax) to €3.42bn as our jet fuel hedging largely offset ATC fees (up 16%) and higher enviro. costs (as ETS allowances unwind and SAF blend mandates impact costs from Jan. 2025).

Ryanair’s competitive fuel hedging provides a key advantage in current volatile oil markets, with FY26 almost 85% hedged at $76bbl and FY27 36% hedged at just under $66bbl. 

Balance Sheet, Liquidity & Returns:

Ryanair’s balance sheet is one of the strongest in the industry with a BBB+ credit rating (both Fitch and S&P) and unencumbered B737 fleet (over 590 aircraft).  At 30 June, gross cash was €4.4bn after €0.6bn capex and almost €0.4bn debt repayments.  Net cash was €2.0bn (up from €1.3bn at 31 Mar.), leaving the Group well positioned to repay approx. €2.1bn maturing bonds over the next 10-months (incl. an €850m bond in Sept.) from internal cash resources.  This financial flexibility further widens the cost gap between Ryanair and competitors who are exposed to expensive (long-term) finance and rising aircraft lease costs.

We welcome Ryanair’s full addition to the MSCI World Index and expect to join the FTSE Russell Index, following their semi-annual index review, in Sept. (albeit this inclusion will be phased over approx. 2-years).  In May, we launched our latest share buyback and have purchased (and cancelled) c.1.6m shares under the programme, at a cost of €39m, at 30 June.

FLEET & GROWTH

Ryanair has 181 B737-8200 “Gamechangers” (up 25 from June 2024) in its 618 aircraft fleet, facilitating 3% FY26 traffic growth (to 206m passengers).  We remain confident that the 29 remaining Gamechangers in our 210 orderbook will deliver well ahead of S.26, when we hope to recover this years delayed traffic growth into FY27.  Boeing continues to expect MAX-10 certification in late 2025 and we’re planning for the timely delivery of our first 15 MAX-10 deliveries in Spring 2027, with 300 of these very fuel efficient aircraft due to deliver by Mar. 2034. 

This summer we will operate over 2,600 routes (incl. 160 new routes) and we’re seeing strong S.25 travel demand across our network.  Our Group airlines capacity constrained growth is being allocated to those regions and airports who are cutting aviation taxes and incentivising traffic growth, and we expect this trend to continue.

We believe European short-haul capacity will remain constrained for the next 5 years to 2030 as the big 2 OEMs remain well behind on aircraft deliveries, many of Europe’s Airbus operators work through Pratt & Whitney engine repairs and EU airline consolidation continues (SAS, TAP, Air Europa & others).  These industry capacity constraints, combined with our widening unit cost (and fuel hedge) advantage, strong balance sheet, low-cost aircraft orders and industry leading ops resilience will, we believe, facilitate Ryanair’s controlled profitable growth to 300m passengers p.a. by FY34. 

ESG

During Q1 we took delivery of 5 new B737 Gamechangers (4% more seats, 16% less fuel & CO₂) and saw the benefit (1.5% lower fuel burn and 6% less noise) from the retrofit of winglets to our B737NG fleet (target of 409 by 2026).  Our recent deal to buy 30 CFM LEAP-IB engines is a significant $500m commitment to improve our operational resilience.  These latest technology engines reduce fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions per seat by up to 20%.  The Groups ambitious SAF commitments and our ongoing investment in new technology positions Ryanair as one of Europe’s most environmentally efficient airlines. It is notable that, despite being Europe’s largest passenger airline, we are only No.4 in the recent Cirium list of EU airline CO₂ emissions.

OUTLOOK

FY26 traffic remains on track to grow just 3% to 206m passengers, due to heavily delayed Boeing deliveries.  As previously guided, we expect modest unit cost inflation in FY26 as the delivery of more B737 Gamechangers, advantageous fuel hedging and effective cost control across our Group airlines helps offset increased ATC charges and higher enviro. costs.  While S.25 travel demand is strong, Q2 fare increases will be lower than in Q1 (which benefitted from a full Easter holiday in April and weak prior-year comps) and we now expect to recover almost all of the 7% fare decline we suffered in PY Q2.  The final H1 outcome is, however, heavily dependent on the strength of close-in Aug. and Sept. bookings.  As is normal at this time of year, we have zero H2 visibility (where PY fare comps normalise and last years modest delivery delay compensation rolls off). 

It remains too early to provide meaningful FY26 PAT guidance.  We do, however, cautiously expect to recover almost all of last years 7% full-year fare decline, which should lead to reasonable net profit growth in FY26.  The final FY26 outcome remains heavily exposed to adverse external developments, incl. the risk of tariff wars, macro-economic shocks, conflict escalation in the Middle East and Ukraine and European ATC strikes, mismanagement & short staffing.”    

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (Wed, 16 July) called on Ursula von “Derlayed-Again” to take urgent action to reform Europe’s failed ATC service as French ATC engage in yet another “recreational” French ATC strike today (Wed, 16 July), unfairly disrupting the travel plans of 30,000 Ryanair passengers – almost all of which are not flying to/from France but passing through French airspace en route to their destination.

Almost 20% of EU flights overfly France, yet French minimum services do not protect overflights during French ATC strikes (as other EU States like Greece, Italy and Spain do). Earlier this month (3&4 July), French ATC strikes forced the cancellation of 1,500 flights which cancelled the travel plans of over 270,000 EU citizens and their families. 90% of these cancellations would have been avoided if overflights over France were protected during French ATC strikes. It is unacceptable that less than 2 weeks later, a further 30,000 passengers’ travel plans have been disrupted due to yet another “recreational” French ATC strike.

Ursula von “Derlayed-Again” has a duty to protect the single market for air travel and to keep the upper airspace over France open so that passengers who are not travelling to/from France can continue to fly during these repeated French ATC strikes. Ursula von “Derlayed-Again” must now take action to reform Europe’s failed ATC services or quit and let someone competent to do the job.

Following Ursula von “Derlayed-Again’s” survival of yesterday’s no-confidence vote, Ryanair and its passengers today (Fri, 11 July), called on the EU Commission President to use her “last chance” to finally take action to protect overflights during national ATC strikes, and demand that Europe’s ATCs are fully staffed for the first wave departures each day.

Almost 20% of EU flights overfly France, yet French minimum services do not protect overflights during French ATC strikes (as other EU States like Greece, Italy and Spain do). For two days last week (3&4 July), French ATC again engaged in their “recreational” strikes forcing the cancellation of 1,500 flights which cancelled the travel plans of over 270,000 EU citizens and their families. 90% of these cancellations would have been avoided if overflights over France were protected during French ATC strikes. 

The EU Commission constantly talk about efficiency and competitiveness, yet Ursula von “Derlayed-Again” continues to preside over repeated ATC strikes, which allows a tiny number of Air Traffic Controllers to close the EU skies. As EU Commission President, Ursula von “Derlayed-Again” has a duty to protect the single market for air travel and to keep the upper airspace over France open so that passengers, who are not travelling to/from France, can continue to fly to Spain, Italy, Germany, and the UK without having their flights needlessly disrupted by French ATC strikes that have nothing to do with them.

Ursula von “Derlayed-Again” must now take action to reform ATC and deliver on her promise of efficiency and competitiveness, or resign and let someone competent to do the job.

Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said:

“It is abysmal to think that despite two days of “recreational” French ATC strikes last week having cancelled 1,500 flights and the travel plans of 270,000 EU citizens – 90% of these cancellations would have been avoided, if overflights were protected by the EU Commission during these recreational French ATC strikes – EU Commission President von “Derlayed-Again” in 6  years has still taken zero action to protect overflights and defend Europe’s single market for air travel. What’s stopping French Air Traffic Controllers from closing the EU skies again next week or the week after with more of these unjustified recreational strikes?

Now that the Parliament has given her a second chance, we hope that President von “Derlayed-Again” takes action to deliver on her promise of efficiency & competitiveness by (1) protecting overflights during national ATC strikes and (2) demanding that ATC services are fully staffed for the first wave of morning departures. These two simple reforms alone would eliminate 90% of Europe’s ATC delays/cancellations.”

Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline, today (Tues, 8 July) issued an open letter to Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, calling on her to quit if she fails to take action to protect the single market for flights over Europe during national French ATC strikes.

Last week, the annual French ATC Summer “recreational” strikes started on Thursday and Friday, causing the cancellation of 1,500 flights, cancelling the travel plans of over 270,000 EU citizens and their families. 90% of these flight cancellations would have been avoided if overflights over France were protected during French ATC strikes. Despite repeated calls from the airline industry, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has refused to take any action to protect and defend the single market for air travel during French ATC strikes. Ryanair calls Ursula von der Leyen’s continuing failure indefensible and unacceptable.

Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, has written an open letter to Commission President von der Leyen calling on her to take immediate action to protect overflights during French ATC strikes or quit. Mr O’Leary criticised the Commission’s false claims that ATC is a “national competence” when protecting the single market for air travel is a Commission competence.

Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said:

“It is unacceptable that Commission President Ursula von der Leyen continues to stand idly by, while the single market for air travel over Europe is repeatedly shut down by French Air Traffic Controllers. We do not allow our railways, our motorways, or our shipping lanes to be closed by industrial action, so it is unacceptable that the EU Commission President fails to defend the single market for air travel. During the Brexit negotiations, Commission President von der Leyen repeatedly stated that “protecting the single market is the most important duty of her Presidency of the European Commission”. If that is so, then she should take immediate action to protect overflights and the single market for air travel during French ATC strikes and stop failing on this issue.

Ursula von der Leyen must protect overflights during national ATC strikes or resign. If she won’t defend the single market for air travel, then she should quit and let somebody competent defend the single market on behalf of Europe’s airline passengers.”

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (Sun, 6 July) renewed its call on EU President, Ursula von der Leyen, to quit if she will not take action to urgently reform EU ATC services, as a tiny handful of French Air Traffic Controllers cause further mass delays across Europe by engaging in two more days of recreational strikes yesterday (Sat, 5 July) and today (Sun, 6 July). Ryanair was already forced to cancel over 400 flights disrupting over 70,000 passengers this week as a result of these recreational French ATC strikes which have now been extended for a fourth day (6 July).

It is completely unacceptable that two or three French Air Traffic Controllers can simply decide to extend these recreational French ATC strikes without any notice and ruin the travel plans of thousands of EU passengers and their families over one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.  Meanwhile EU President Ursula von der Leyen has failed to take any action to reform Europe’s ATC service (as she has failed to do for the last 6 years). As a result, EU passengers are now being held to ransom once again by a handful of French Air Traffic Controllers.

Ryanair calls on Ursula von der Leyen to take urgent action to reform EU ATC services by;

   1.) ensuring that ATC services are fully staffed for the first wave of daily departures, and

   2.) protecting overflights during national ATC strikes.

These two simple reforms would eliminate 90% of all ATC delays and protect EU passengers from these repeated and avoidable ATC disruptions due to yet another recreational French ATC strike.