89% Of Customers Rate Ryanair Excellent/Very/Good

Ryanair today (5 Feb) released its January customer service statistics, which show that:

 

• 93% of January flights arrived on-time (up from 89% January 2019) excl. ATC delays
• ATC staff shortages delayed 1,975 Ryanair flights in January (3%)

 

Ryanair also released its January ‘Rate My Flight’ customer experience scores, which show 89% of over 104,000 respondents rated their flight ‘Excellent/Very Good/Good’, with high ratings for crew friendliness (93%), onboard service (91%), range of food & drink (85%), and boarding (85%).

 

Rate My Flight	Excell/V Good/Good
Customer Experience	89%
Crew Friendliness	93%
Onboard Service	91%
Food & Drink Range	85%
Boarding	85%

 

Ryanair’s Kenny Jacobs said:

 

“Ryanair Group Airlines carried over 10.8m customers in January with over 93% of our 62,000 flights arriving on-time excl. ATC delays. While these ATC delays improved significantly in January, there is still a needless impact on our punctuality – with France, Germany and Portugal as the worst affected countries. However, our industry-leading performance continues with improved year-on-year punctuality.

 

We’re satisfied that 89% of customers surveyed (over 104,000) rated their Ryanair flight in January as ‘Excellent/Very Good /Good’ using Ryanair’s Rate My Flight feature, which allows all customers to provide real-time reviews of their flights via the Ryanair app and email. We welcome this feedback, which encourages us to continuously improve our customer service.”

 

Ryanair Holdings plc today (4 Feb) released January traffic statistics as follows:

 

	2019	2020      (LF)	Growth
Ryanair Group	10.3m	10.8m     (92%)	+5%
Ryanair	10.0m	10.3m     (92%)	+3%
Lauda	0.3m	0.5m     (91%)	+67%

                                                                                   

Rolling Annual

141.1m

152.9m    (96%)

+8%

 

• Ryanair operated over 62,000 scheduled flights in January.

Due To Stronger Christmas/New Year Traffic.

Ryanair Holdings plc today (3 Feb.) reported a Q3 profit of €88m, compared to a €66m loss in the same quarter last year. Highlights include:

 

• Traffic grew 6% to 36m guests.
• Revenue per guest rose 13% (9% higher fares; ancillary rev. up 21%).
• Over 90% of flights arrived on-time (excl. ATC delays).
• 111 new routes announced for S.20.
• Director of Sustainability appointed to drive our Environmental Policy.
• Over €440m returned to shareholders under €700m buyback programme.

 

Q3 (IFRS) – Group	31 Dec. 2018	31 Dec. 2019	Change
Guests	33.8m	35.9m	+6%
Load Factor	95%	96%	+1pt
Revenue	€1.58bn	€1.91bn	+21%
(Net loss)/PAT	(€66m)	€88m	–
Basic EPS	(€0.06)	+€0.08	–

 

EUROPE’S GREENEST, CLEANEST AIRLINE:

 

The future of our planet is of vital importance to our customers and all our people. Ryanair has the lowest carbon emissions of any major EU airline at just 66 grams of CO₂ per passenger km. Passengers switching to Ryanair can halve their CO₂ emissions compared to other major EU airlines. In Dec. 2019, Ryanair appointed a Director of Sustainability to deliver the Group’s ambitious sustainability targets.

 

Ryanair operates the youngest fleet, with the highest load factors, and newer more fuel-efficient engines. Our Environmental Policy commits us to:

• Be plastic free in 5 years;
• Cut noise emissions by up to 40% per seat;
• Cut CO₂ emissions by 10% by 2030 (up to 50% lower than other major EU airlines);
• Encourage guests to support our voluntary carbon offset programme;
• Work with environmental partners to improve our environment in Europe.

 

While aviation generates  just 2% of Europe’s CO₂, our industry must work harder to further cut these low emissions. EU airlines already pay excessive environmental taxes – Ryanair will pay over €630m in such taxes this year. For further info. click here: www.ryanair.com/environment.

 

BUSINESS REVIEW:

 

Revenues

Sales grew 21% to €1.91bn.  Better than expected Christmas and New Year bookings, at higher fares, led to a 16% increase in Scheduled Revenue to €1.19bn as we carried 36m guests at 9% higher fares. Ancillary Revenue increased by 28% to €0.72bn as more guests choose Priority Boarding and Preferred Seat services. In Oct., Ryanair Labs launched a new digital platform with improved, personalised, guest offers. Labs are now focused on improving penetration across key ancillary products over the coming quarters. Rentalcars.com became our new car hire partner in late 2019 and will help grow car hire penetration and revenue over the next 3 years.

 

Costs

Our fuel bill rose 14% (+€83m) to €0.7bn due to higher prices and 6% traffic growth. Ex-fuel unit costs rose by 1% due to higher staff (increased pilot pay, higher crew ratios as pilot resignations have slowed to almost zero) and maintenance costs (older aircraft longer in the fleet due to the Boeing MAX delivery delays), offset by falling EU261 costs due to improved punctuality. Our fuel is 90% hedged for FY20 at $71bbl and 90% of our FY21 fuel is now hedged at $61bbl, delivering over €100m fuel savings into FY21. We continue to negotiate attractive growth deals as airports compete to win Ryanair’s very limited traffic growth.

 

Group Airlines

The Group airlines continue to grow. In Q3 Buzz increased its fleet to 32 B737s and expanded outside Poland with new bases in Prague and Budapest. Buzz will grow its fleet to 50 B737s for S.20, with 7 aircraft in Polish charter operations and 43 operating scheduled flying for Ryanair.

 

Lauda continues to underperform with fares much lower than expected, despite strong traffic growth and high load factors. As announced on 10 Jan., this is a direct result of intense price competition with Lufthansa subsidiaries in both Germany and Austria. While Lauda will now carry 6.5m guests in FY20, average fares are well below those of other Group airlines. Lauda’s management is implementing a new cost cutting plan and is improving penetration on ancillary products. Lauda will grow its fleet from 23 to 38 A320s by S.20 with increased capacity in Vienna and a new base in Zadar.

 

Malta Air continues to grow strongly and has taken over the Group’s French, German, Italian and Maltese bases. Its fleet will grow to 120 aircraft by S.20.

 

Ryanair DAC saw its fleet reduced to 360 B737s in Q3 as both Buzz and Malta Air took over more flight operations for the Group. Armenia became the newest destination in Jan. Regrettably the Boeing MAX delivery delays mean that Ryanair DAC had to close a number of loss-making winter bases leading to some crew redundancies in Spain, Germany and Sweden. We have endeavoured to minimise job losses through base transfers & seasonal bases and continue to work with our people, their unions and our airports to finalise this process.

 

Boeing MAX update

Delivery of the Group’s first Boeing 737-MAX-200 aircraft has been repeatedly delayed from Q2 2019. It is now likely that our first MAX aircraft will not deliver until Sept. or Oct. 2020. The requirement for MAX simulator training will also slow down the delivery of backlogged aircraft and new deliveries. But we believe that these “gamechanger” aircraft (with 4% more seats, burn 16% less fuel), when delivered, will transform our cost base and our business for the next decade. Due to these delivery delays, we won’t see any of these cost savings until late FY21. As a direct result of these delivery delays, we plan to extend our 200m p.a. passenger target by at least one or two years to FY25 or FY26.

 

Balance Sheet & Shareholder Returns

Ryanair’s BBB+ rated balance sheet is one of the strongest in the industry. 70% of our aircraft are debt free. This allows us to grow while weaker airlines collapse, sell or retrench in the current challenging market. We have returned €440m to shareholders under our current €700m share buyback programme. Despite the share buyback and the impact of IFRS 16 (€230m), net debt was just over €700m at period end. Due to the uncertainty surrounding the Boeing MAX aircraft deliveries, peak Capex and maturing bonds in 2021, the Board has decided to extend the current €700m buyback programme until the end of July.

 

Outlook

As announced on 10 Jan., Ryanair’s FY20 PAT guidance has risen to a range of €0.95bn to €1.05bn thanks to stronger Christmas and New Year travel bookings, at better than expected fares. Q4 forward bookings are 1% ahead of this time last year at slightly better than expected average fares and we now expect full year traffic to grow by 8% to 154m guests. Ancillary revenues continue to grow, but at a slower rate having annualised the cabin bag changes in Nov. This will support full-year revenue per guest growth of between +3% to +4%. The full year fuel bill will rise by €440m and ex-fuel unit costs will increase by approx. 2%. On the basis of current trading, Ryanair expects to finish close to the mid-point of the new PAT guidance range.  This guidance is heavily dependent on close-in Q4 fares and the absence of any security events.

Ponta Delgada, Portugal Takes No. 1 Spot

Ahead Of Yerevan, Armenia (2^nd) & Galway, Ireland (3^rd)

Ryanair, Europe’s No. 1 airline, today (30 Jan) revealed Portugal’s Ponta Delgada as its top European destination to visit in 2020. The capital of Azores topped Ryanair’s ‘Top 10 for 2020’- a list of Europe’s most holiday-worthy destinations, selected by Ryanair’s travel trends team after they visited all of Ryanair’s 241 destinations.

 

The capital of Armenia, Yerevan, affectionately known as the ‘Pink City’, took 2^nd place while Galway, in the West of Ireland – the European Capital of Culture for 2020 – took 3^rd place in the list of destinations that have to be experienced in 2020, from new and emerging destinations to old favourites that everyone needs to visit at least once.

 

RYANAIR’S TOP 10 FOR 2020

1.     Ponta Delgada, Portugal

2.     Yerevan, Armenia

3.     Galway, Ireland

4.     Santander, Spain

5.     Palanga, Lithuania

6.     Verona, Italy

7.     Tbilisi, Georgia

8.     Beirut, Lebanon

9.     Marseille, France

10.  Tel Aviv, Israel

 

To Celebrate, Ryanair has released seats for sale with fares starting from just €19.99, for travel in April, May and June, which are only available for booking on the Ryanair.com website until midnight Sunday (2 Feb).

 

Ryanair’s Alejandra Ruiz said:

“Ryanair are pleased to announce Ponta Delgada in Portugal as our most visit-worthy destination of 2020. These 10 incredible spots were selected as our ‘Top 10 for 2020’ by our travel trends team after visiting all 241 of Ryanair’s destinations.”

To celebrate we are releasing seats for sale from just €19.99 for travel in April, May and June, which are available for booking until midnight Sunday (2 Feb). Since these amazing low prices will be snapped up quickly, customers should log onto www.ryanair.com now and avoid missing out.”

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline today (28 Jan) announced it has partnered with Rentalcars.com, the leading online car rental service, to offer its travellers the best rates on the world’s largest choice of car rental inventory.

By integrating Rentalcars.com’s platform across its Group Airlines, Ryanair is using the most innovative technology in the industry to create a market-leading and frictionless user experience that will deliver more car rental bookings than ever before.

As a result of its improved customer journey across Web, Mobile and App platforms, Ryanair’s customers will not only be offered the widest choice of cars available but will also receive personalised, dynamic recommendations and price-matched rates for car rentals in 60,000 locations across 160 countries. Rentalcars.com has also integrated a 24/7 customer service centre into Ryanair’s car rental product, giving its travellers access to a live chat service in multiple languages.

The partnership will also see Europcar’s car rental services, provided by Rentalcars.com, promoted exclusively through offline channels, such as in-flight announcements and boarding cards, offering exclusive discounts to Ryanair customers.

 

Greg O’Gorman, Director of Ancillary Revenue at Ryanair, said:

“Ryanair is pleased to partner with Rentalcars.com, as we continue to innovate our Car Hire service and to further personalise our product offering to our 154m customers p.a. Rentalcars.com uses innovative technology to continually optimise the user journey, giving our customers the best choice, value and care on the market.

Ryanair customers already enjoy the lowest fares in Europe and our new partnership with Rentalcars.com will guarantee them the best value car hire service as well, available only through the Ryanair.com website.”

 

Ady Guthrie, Commercial Director of Transport Partnerships at Rentalcars.com, added:

“This partnership further strengthens our position as the car rental provider of choice for leading airlines and travel in general, and is a testament to the hard work of the entire Rentalcars.com team. 

“We are driven by using cutting-edge technology to make it easier for travellers to rent a car regardless of where they are in the world, so we are delighted to have helped Ryanair to realise this shared objective for its 154 million annual customers. 

“As travellers increasingly expect to book every aspect of their trip in one place, we will continue to experiment with our partners to help the industry react and deliver the truly connected trip.”

Ryanair, Europe’s No. 1 airline, today (23 Jan) launched a huge January Blues sale with up to 20% off a million seats across its entire network for travel between February and June, allowing customers to beat the winter blues with a spring getaway on the lowest fares.

This amazing seat sale is available for travel from February to June and can only be found on the Ryanair.com website, from now until midnight on Sunday (26 Jan).

Ryanair’s Alejandra Ruiz said:

“It’s the most depressing time of the year and there is no better way to help beat those winter blues than by booking a getaway. We’ve launched a huge January Blues sale with up to 20% off a million seats across our entire European network.

This incredible offer will end at midnight on Sunday (26 Jan), so customers should log on quickly and bag a bargain pick-me-up today.”

Book here: https://www.ryanair.com/ie/en/plan-trip/explore/cheap-deals

Ryanair, which is the largest passenger airline operating to and from the UK today (Thurs, 16 Jan) wrote to Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sajid Javid MP, calling on him to extend the APD eco tax ‘holiday’ given to Flybe, to all of its UK airline competitors including Ryanair, Easyjet and BA, as otherwise this government subsidy to the billionaire owners of Flybe will be in breach of Competition law and State Aid rules.

Ryanair pointed out that the Flybe business model is neither profitable nor viable and has lurched from failure to failure repeatedly over the last 20 years.

Ryanair also pointed out that while the Flybe business model is unsustainable, it is owned by billionaires including Richard Branson, Delta Airlines and Cyrus Capital, who do not need a Government subsidy to prop up their failed airline investments.  Ryanair also rejected the false claims made by Andrea Leadsom that Flybe has a ‘viable’ business model when everyone in the industry knows that the Flybe business model is doomed to fail again and again.

Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said:

“This Government bailout of the billionaire owned Flybe is in breach of both Competition and State Aid laws.  The Flybe model is not viable which is why its billionaire owners are looking for a state subsidy for their failed investment.

The reason why Flybe isn’t viable is because it cannot compete with lower fare services from UK regional airports on domestic and EU routes provided by Ryanair, Easyjet, BA and others; and it cannot compete with lower cost road and rail alternatives on many smaller UK domestic routes.  If Flybe fails (as it undoubtedly will once this Government subsidy ends) then Ryanair, Easyjet, BA and others will step in and provide lower fare flights from the UK regional airports, as we already have to make up for the recent failure of Thomas Cook Airways.

This Flybe ‘subsidy’ cannot comply with Competition, or State Aid rules unless the same APD eco tax holiday and other Government subsidies are extended to all other UK competitor airlines including Ryanair, Easyjet, BA among others.”