Ryanair, Europe’s no.1 airline, has today (11 Feb) announced an extension to its maintenance agreement with Joramco, the MRO provider based in Jordan and the engineering arm of Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) Ltd, which will see the airline undertake 10 lines of heavy maintenance for the next 10 years at their MRO facility in Amman, Jordan. Ryanair’s fleet will grow to over 800 aircraft by the end of the decade and this agreement will ensure that the airline has flexibility around where it places its aircraft for upcoming winter maintenance seasons. The announcement comes this week after Joramco successfully completed its 100^th C check for Ryanair.

Joramco’s 110,000sq metre facility will facilitate heavy maintenance of Ryanair’s aircraft as the airline grows its fleet to 800 aircraft, including the airline’s recent 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 uses a mix of internal facilities and external suppliers to conduct its heavy maintenance. Ryanair continues to invest in its internal heavy maintenance facilities and this agreement will complement these facilities to ensure that maintenance requirements are more than met over the coming years.

Ryanair’s Chief Operations Officer, Neal McMahon, said:

“We are delighted to announce this extended agreement for 10 maintenance lines with Joramco for the next 10 years. Joramco have demonstrated excellent standards in their state-of-the-art facilities, and we are pleased to extend our partnership with them for 10 maintenance lines for the next 10 years as we grow our fleet to over 800 aircraft. The enduring strength of this relationship is demonstrated this week as Joramco successfully completes 100 Ryanair aircraftC checks.”

Commenting on this agreement, Joramco’s Chief Executive Officer Fraser Currie, added:

“Following the successful completion of Joramco’s 100^th C check for Ryanair, we are delighted to agree a further 10 years from 2024 for 10 maintenance lines. This agreement reflects our commitment to delivering safe and reliable maintenance services to Ryanair fleet, and this strategic move solidifies the partnership between Ryanair and Joramco and ensures efficient and timely C checks for Ryanair’s growing fleet.”

Ryanair today (7 Feb) welcomed the EU General Court ruling that €3.4bn Covid-19 State aid granted by the Netherlands to Air France-KLM in 2020 was illegal. This is the second time that the EU General Court has ruled this aid package to be illegal, after the Commission failed to correct the errors made in its original decision when it essentially re-issued it in 2021, ignoring the Court’s first ruling in this case. Today’s decision is also the fourth time overall that the Court has ruled that Covid-19 State aid to the Air France-KLM Group was unlawful. Ryanair now calls on the European Commission to order the Netherlands to immediately recover this multi-billion euro illegal State aid package from Air France-KLM and impose adequate remedies to repair at least some of the damage to competition done by this massive State bailout.

Ryanair’s spokesperson said:

“One of the EU’s greatest achievements is the creation of a true single market for air transport. The European Commission’s approval of the Dutch State aid to Air France-KLM went against the fundamental principles of EU law, like the principle of non-discrimination on the basis of nationality. Today’s judgment confirms that the Commission must act as a guardian of the level playing field in air transport and cannot sign-off discriminatory State aid issued by national governments. The Court’s intervention is a triumph for fair competition and consumers across the EU. 

The EU Commission’s spineless approach to State aid since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis allowed Member States to write open-ended cheques to their inefficient zombie flag carriers in the name of faded national prestige.

During the Covid-19 pandemic over €40bn in discriminatory State subsidies was gifted to EU flag carriers. The EU General Court has already ruled in other cases concerning Covid-19 State aid that billions of euros in aid received by SAS, Lufthansa, Air France-KLM, and certain Italian airlines were unlawful.

The European Commission’s Directorate General for Competition has still not acted to force recovery of the unlawful aid, nor has it imposed any measures to remedy the damage to competition caused by the Swedish, Danish, German, French, and Italian governments favouring their local airlines over other EU airlines, in breach of EU law. Today’s judgment underlines the need for the European Commission to immediately act to recover these illegal State aid packages and order remedies to restore at least some of the damage done to competition.

Undistorted competition eliminates inefficiency and benefits consumers through low fares and choice. Unjustified subsidies, on the other hand, encourage ineffectiveness and will harm consumers for decades to come.”

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, has today (6^th Feb) announced that it has been awarded an ‘A-’ rating on climate protection from the CDP – an international non-profit that helps organisations to disclose their environmental impact.  

Through 2023, Ryanair progressed its ambitious decarbonisation plans. The airline continued to take delivery of new B737-8200 “Gamechangers” (4% more seats, 16% less CO2) while working with fuel partners to accelerate SAF supply across Europe. Following its order of 300 Boeing MAX-10 aircraft (21% more seats, 20% less CO2), it reset the Group’s environmental goals, targeting 50 grams of CO2 per pax/km by 2031. Ryanair continues funding aviation decarbonisation research through the Ryanair Sustainable Aviation Research Centre in Trinity College Dublin.                 

Ryanair’s Director of Sustainability, Thomas Fowler, said:

“We are delighted to be awarded an ‘A-’ rating by CDP. This rating reflects Ryanair’s industry leading CO2 emission intensity and our ambitious emission reduction strategy.”

Ryanair Holdings plc today (Fri, 2 Feb) released January 2024 traffic stats as follows:

Ryanair operated over 71,700 flights in Jan. Over 950 flights cancelled due to Israel/Gaza conflict.

*As previously guided, short-term reduction to L.F. due to removal of Ryanair flights from most OTA Pirate websites in early Dec.

KIWI GUARANTEE NO OVERCHARGING FOR RYANAIR FLIGHTS/ANCILLARIES

Following Ryanair’s recent approved partnership with OTA, loveholidays.com. Ryanair today (Mon 29 Jan) announced a new partnership agreement with approved OTA, Kiwi.com, which guarantees that Kiwi will now have direct access to the Ryanair.com website without screenscraping, and Kiwi agree to provide their customers with low Ryanair prices for flights and ancillaries, and will see Kiwi provide the direct accurate customer contact and payment details to Ryanair.

This new approved OTA deal means that Kiwi customers can now buy Ryanair flights/ancillaries at real prices (without mark-ups) via the Kiwi.com website, and Kiwi customers will have direct access to their myRyanair account and will receive all Ryanair flight info directly to their email from Ryanair. Kiwi customers will no longer need to complete Ryanair’s customer verification process which unauthorised OTA Pirates’ customers must continue to do.

In addition to these benefits, this deal also allows customers to enjoy Kiwi virtual interline service which allows customers to book connecting flights, but if they miss their connection flight, Kiwi will reaccommodate passengers free of charge on the next available flight.

Ryanair has long campaigned for all consumers to be protected from OTA Pirate overcharges and pricing scams, and an end to fake customer contact and payment info. This approved OTA partnership with Kiwi demonstrates how OTAs can work with Ryanair in a transparent way that eliminates the need for anti-consumer practices while giving Kiwi.com passengers direct access to Ryanair’s low prices with no overcharges or price scams.

Ryanair’s Dara Brady said:

“We are pleased to announce this new approved OTA agreement with Kiwi.com. This is great news for Kiwi customers who will now be able to book Ryanair’s low-price flights, seats, and bags through Kiwi.com with full price transparency, safe in the knowledge that they will receive all important flight info directly from Ryanair and full access to their booking through their myRyanair account.

Ryanair has long campaigned for all consumers to be protected from OTA Pirate overcharges and scams, and to eliminate fake customer contact and payment info being provided to airlines. This new partnership with Kiwi represents a significant step in achieving that protection for all Kiwi customers who will now get access to Ryanair’s low fares and ancillary services with no overcharges, which will enable Kiwi to offer Ryanair’s low prices to all its customers.”

Golan Shaked, Chief Commercial Officer, Kiwi.com said:

“The announcement today of the cooperation with Ryanair is a positive one, ending a period of friction that has impacted our customers. It reflects our commitment to establishing relationships with all airlines for the benefit of customers and our long-term business objectives.”

YEAR TO DATE (9 MONTH) PROFITS UP 39% TO €2.19BN

Ryanair Holdings today (29 Jan.) reported a Q3 PAT of €15m, compared to a bumper prior year Q3 PAT of €211m, as higher fuel costs offset revenue gains.  While traffic and fares were ahead of prior year, close-in Christmas/New Year loads and yields were softer than previously expected as Ryanair lowered prices in response to the sudden (but welcome) removal of flights from OTA Pirate websites in early Dec.  PAT for the 9-months ended 31 Dec. 2023 was up 39% at €2.19bn (PY: €1.58bn).

Q3 highlights:

• Traffic grew 7% to 41.4m (LF down 1% to 92%).
• Rev. per pax +9% (ave. fare +13% & ancil. rev. +2%).
• MSCI ESG rating upgraded from ‘BBB’ to ‘A’ in Dec.
• Fuel bill rose €320m (+35%) to €1.2bn.
• 136x B737 “Gamechangers” in total fleet of 574 aircraft at 31 Dec.
• Fuel hedging extended to 65% of FY25 at $79bbl saving €450m.
• Interim div. of €0.175 per share announced (payable 28 Feb.).

	Q3 FY23	Q3 FY24	Change	YTD FY23	YTD FY24	Change
Customers	38.5m	41.4m	+7%	133.6m	146.8m	+10%
Load Factor	93%	92%	-1pt	94%	94%	–
Revenue	€2.31bn	€2.70bn	+17%	€8.93bn	€11.27bn	+26%
Op. Costs	€2.15bn1	€2.72bn	+26%	€7.13bn2	€8.88bn	+25%
PAT	€211m1	€15m	-93%	€1.58bn2	€2.19bn	+39%

Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary, said:

ENVIRONMENT:

“In Dec., MSCI upgraded Ryanair’s ESG rating to an industry leading ‘A’ (from ‘BBB’) and we remain ranked Europe’s No.1 airline for ESG by Sustainalytics.  Our new aircraft technology and increasing use of SAF has positioned Ryanair as one of the EU’s most environmentally efficient major airlines.  In Q3 we took delivery of 12, new B737-8200 “Gamechangers” (4% more seats, 16% less fuel & CO2).  We continue to retro-fit  winglets on our B737NG fleet (target 409 by 2026), reducing fuel burn by 1.5% and cutting noise emissions by 6%.  We recently expanded our SAF partnerships with ENI to supply Ryanair’s Italian bases, and we remain on track to achieve our Group’s ambitious 2030 goal of powering 12.5% of Ryanair flights with SAF (10% supply now secured). 

In 2023 Europe suffered 67 days of ATC strikes (13 times more than in 2022), forcing airlines to cancel thousands of flights to/from Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK while France in particular uses minimum service laws to protect French local/domestic flights.  We continue to call for urgent reform of Europe’s inefficient ATC system which would deliver the most significant environmental improvement in EU air travel.  Sadly, there has been no action from the EU Commission.  We again call on President Ursula von der Leyen to defend the single market for air travel by protecting 100% of overflights during national ATC strikes, as is already the case in Greece, Italy and Spain.

BOARD UPDATES:

The Board recently announced that Ms. Roberta Neri (an Italian Citizen) has agreed to join the Board of Ryanair Holdings plc as a non-exec director from 1 Feb.  Roberta is a former CEO of Enav (the Italian air navigation service provider) and has considerable aviation and renewables industry experience. 

Both Louise Phelan (SID) and Michael Cawley have confirmed that they do not wish to seek re-election at the 2024 AGM (in Sept.) and will step down from the Board at that time.  We thank them sincerely for their long service.  Róisín Brennan, who has significant PLC Board experience (over 5 years on Ryanair’s Board), has been appointed senior independent director (SID) effective 1 Apr.

GROWTH & FLEET:

At the end of Q3, Ryanair had taken delivery of 136 B737 Gamechangers.  We expect to have up to 174 of these aircraft in our fleet by late June for peak S.24 (+50 from S.23), which would be 7 short of our contracted deliveries.  There remains a risk that some of these deliveries could slip further.  We’ve a bumper S.24 schedule on sale with 169 new routes (total 2,600 routes), incl. our first 11 domestic routes in Morocco.  While travel demand remains high, we expect S.24 EU short haul capacity to be behind S.23 as competitors ground A320 aircraft in Europe due to the P&W engine issues (and expect these disruptions will run into 2026).  We therefore encourage customers to book early on www.ryanair.com to secure the lowest fares for S.24 before they sell out.

We continue to work closely with Boeing to minimise delivery delays and improve quality control in both Wichita and Seattle.  While the recent MAX-9 grounding was a disappointing setback, we don’t expect it to affect the MAX-8 fleet or the MAX-10 certification.  We visited Seattle in Jan. and met with Boeing senior management.  Boeing are increasing their QA resources in Wichita and Seattle.  We have run extra checks on our recent B737 deliveries and have noted improvements in quality with fewer delivery defects.  However, Boeing have more work to do to improve quality, reduce delivery delays, and we fully support the initiatives that Dave Calhoun (CEO) and Brian West (CFO) are taking to improve Boeing’s performance and production.

We have reached agreement with SAP Concur to integrate their on-line travel tool with Ryanair’s website.  Corporate customers who book directly with Ryanair via Concur can now benefit from significant efficiencies (incl. automated expense & invoice management) in their booking and admin. process.  This, coupled with our low fares and high reliability improves our offering to business travellers.  We also welcome the recent agreements with Love Holidays and Kiwi (OTAs), which will see their customers book flights directly on the Ryanair.com website, but without inflating Ryanair prices for seats or ancillary products, thereby greatly improving the customer service offering available to both Love Holidays and Kiwi customers. 

We expect Europe’s airlines will continue to consolidate over the next 3 years, with the takeover of ITA (Italy) and Air Europa (Spain), as well as the sale of TAP (Portugal) and SAS (Scandinavia) already underway.  This, in addition to A320 fleet groundings due to the P&W engine issues and the large backlog of OEM aircraft deliveries is likely to constrain short haul capacity in Europe for the next 3 years.  These capacity constraints, combined with our significant cost advantage (incl. FY25 fuel savings), strong balance sheet, low-cost aircraft orders and industry leading resilience, will (we believe) underpin a decade of profitable growth opportunities for Ryanair as we expand our traffic to 300m pax p.a. by FY34.    

Q3 FY24 BUSINESS REVIEW:

Revenue & Costs

Q3 scheduled revenues increased 21% to €1.75bn.  Traffic grew 7% to 41.4m while ave. fares rose 13% to over €42, thanks to a strong Oct. mid-term and peak Christmas/New Year travel (albeit that close-in loads and fares were softer than originally expected due to the sudden removal of Ryanair flights from many OTA Pirate websites in early Dec.).  Ancillary revenue increased 10% to €0.95bn (c.€23 per passenger).  Total Q3 revenue rose 17% to €2.7bn.  Operating costs increased 26% to €2.7bn, primarily due to a 35% increase in fuel costs, higher staff costs (reflecting pay restoration, crew, engineering & handler pay increases and higher crewing ratios as we improve ops. resilience) and the earlier timing of maintenance.  The widening cost gap between Ryanair and all our EU competitors (which is further enhanced by Ryanair’s low-cost financing and net interest income) remains a growing competitive advantage.

Our Q4 fuel is almost 94% hedged at approx. $89bbl (a mix of forwards and caps) and FY25 hedging has increased to 65% at approx. $79bbl.  Almost 90% of Q4 €/$ opex is hedged at 1.09 and over 70% of FY25 is hedged at 1.11.  This strong hedge position protects us from current fuel price volatility and delivers approx. €450m savings on fuel already hedged for FY25.

Balance Sheet & Liquidity

Ryanair’s balance sheet is one of the strongest in the industry with a BBB+ credit rating (both S&P and Fitch) and €2.9bn gross cash at quarter end, despite €1.9bn capex and €1.1bn debt repayments.  Net cash was €0.15bn at 31 Dec., boosted somewhat by the delay of aircraft deliveries into Q4.  All of our owned B737 fleet (546 aircraft) are unencumbered, which widens our cost advantage over competitor airlines, many of whom are exposed to high interest rates and rising aircraft lease costs.  In Nov. the Board announced the Group’s new Dividend Policy, under which an interim dividend of €0.175 per share will be paid on 28 Feb.   

OUTLOOK:

We continue to target approx. 183.5m FY24 traffic (+9%), despite slightly lower Q3 load factors and Boeing delivery delays.  As a result of these lower load factors and higher productivity pay (recently agreed with various pilot unions incl. Belgium, Italy & the UK) to improve operational resilience, we now expect FY24 ex-fuel unit costs to rise by c.€2.50, which still widens the cost gap between Ryanair and our main European competitor airlines.  Q4, which is traditionally our weakest quarter, will also be impacted by the partial unwind of free ETS carbon credits (from 1 Jan.).  While we will benefit from the first half of Easter traffic falling in late Mar., this is unlikely to fully offset the weaker than previously expected load factors and yields in late Q3 and early Q4.  We are therefore narrowing our FY24 PAT guidance to a range of between €1.85bn to €1.95bn (previously €1.85bn to €2.05bn).  This guidance and the full year result remains heavily dependent upon avoiding unforeseen adverse events in Q4 (such as the Ukraine war, the Israel-Hamas conflict and further Boeing delivery delays).”

Notes:

1. Non-IFRS financial measure, excl. €9m except. unrealised mark-to-market loss (timing unwind) on jet fuel caps.
2. Non-IFRS financial measure, excl. €116m except. unrealised mark-to-market loss (timing unwind) on jet fuel caps.

CONSUMERS GUARANTEED NO OVERCHARGING FOR RYANAIR FLIGHTS/ANCILLARIES

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (23 Jan) agreed a new partnership with OTA loveholidays for its customers who wish to book low-cost package holidays. This deal allows loveholidays’ customers to buy Ryanair flights, seats, and bags as part of their loveholidays package at Ryanair’s low prices. It guarantees that loveholidays’ customers will not be overcharged and they will have direct access to their myRyanair account for all customer info questions.

This partnership with loveholidays also guarantees that Ryanair flight info will be provided directly to each customer’s email address, including pre-departure info on Ryanair T&C’s, and in cases of disruptions. loveholidays’ agrees that it will only display Ryanair’s real prices, without mark-ups and will only pass accurate customer contact and payment details to Ryanair. This means loveholidays’ customers will not need to complete Ryanair’s customer verification process which unauthorised OTA Pirates customers must continue to do.

This is great news for loveholidays’ customers who will now be able to book Ryanair’s low fares as part of their loveholidays package with full transparency, while still benefiting from loveholidays’ flexible payment plans and ATOL protection. Ryanair has long campaigned for all consumers to be protected from OTA Pirate scams, which includes overcharges, hidden mark-ups, and fake customer contact and payment info.

Ryanair’s Dara Brady said:

“We are pleased to announce this first OTA partnership with loveholidays, which will ensure that loveholidays’ customers can now book Ryanair flights, seats, and bags as part of their package with the guarantee that they will not be overcharged for flights, bags, or seats, they will receive flight updates directly from Ryanair and will also have direct access to their booking through their myRyanair account.”

loveholidays’ Chief Marketing Officer, Al Murray, added:     

“As the UK and Ireland’s largest and fastest growing OTA, we are delighted to be the world’s first Ryanair-approved package holiday provider. Our status as an approved Ryanair partner will ensure the process of booking and managing a Ryanair flight as part of a loveholidays package is seamless for customers; something no other package holiday provider can offer.

The loveholidays-Ryanair partnership means all our customers can take advantage of Ryanair’s low fares while benefiting from our unrivalled choice of hotels, flexible payment plans and ATOL protection. Ultimately, this new partnership highlights our commitment to championing consumer choice, with the overall aim of making travel more affordable and accessible while opening the world to everyone.”