New Winter routes to Parma and Lisbon also announced

 

Ryanair today (12 August) announced a new winter service connecting Malta and Tel Aviv International airport, with 2 weekly flights from November as part of its Winter’21 schedule. Ryanair is proud to launch its first ever direct route between the 2 Mediterranean countries, further strengthening Malta-Israel business, tourism and cultural relationships.

Ryanair is also delighted to launch additional new routes to Parma and Lisbon, with 2 weekly flights each from November. Maltese passengers can now book a winter getaway to Israel, Portugal or Italy, flying on the lowest fares & greenest aircraft.

To celebrate, Ryanair has launched a seat sale with fares available from just €19.99 for travel until the end of March 2022, which must be booked by midnight 14^th August only on www.ryanair.com.

 

Ryanair Winter 2021 schedule, mainly operated by Malta Air from its Malta base, will deliver:

 

Malta Winter 2021
Total Routes	Total Weekly Flights	12 New Routes	Weekly Flights
62	154	TEL AVIV	2
		PARMA	2
		LISBON	2
		Lourdes	2
		Milan Malpensa	2
		Zagreb	2
		Bucharest	2
		Kyiv	2
		Eindhoven	2
		Paphos	2
		Tallinn	1
		Warsaw Modlin	3

 

Speaking at Malta’s Ministry for Tourism today Malta Air CEO, David O’Brien, said:

“We are delighted to announce a new Malta route direct from Tel Aviv, operating twice weekly from November as part of Ryanair’s Winter ‘21 schedule in Malta. Israelis passengers can now look forward to exploring Malta with 3-hour direct flights from only €19.99, instead of flying through Germany in 8 hours from over €200* one way.

We are also delighted to announce new Malta routes to Parma and Lisbon, with 2 weekly flights each from November as part of our Winter21 schedule that will deliver over 60 routes, mainly operated by Malta Air from/to its Malta base.

In the past two weeks Ryanair has announced 12 new direct Malta routes to a total of 62 direct Malta routes, compared to a total of 2 routes from Lufthansa and one from Air France, who expect everyone to transfer through Germany or France.

To celebrate, we are launching a seat sale with fares available from just €19.99 for travel until end of March 2022, which must be booked by midnight Saturday 14^th August. Since these amazing low fares will be snapped up quickly, customers should log onto www.ryanair.com to avoid missing out.”

 

In his keynote speech, Minister for Tourism and Consumer Protection Clayton Bartolo outlined that this new announcement is sterling news for Malta’s tourism industry.

“Across the years, the Maltese Government has worked hard to ensure that the Malta International Airport continues to embrace new airlines within our shores but most importantly more frequent connections both in Europe and beyond.  The significance of this is associated with the fact that the Maltese Islands will have more frequent visitors in the coming weeks and months,” remarked Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo.

*Lowest one-way fare on the Lufthansa website for Nov 2021 as of 11^th Aug.

 

 Load Factor Rises To 80% As Eu Covid Certs Roll Out

 

Ryanair Holdings plc today (4 August) released July traffic statistics as follows:

 

	JULY 2020	JULY 2021	LOAD FACTOR
Ryanair Group	4.4m	9.3m	80%

 

	GUESTS	LOAD FACTOR
June	5.3m	72%
July	9.3m	80%

 

Ryanair operated over 61,000 flights in July with an 80% load factor.

Customers Can Now Fully Offset Their Co2 Emissions

Ryanair, Europe’s greenest major airline, has today (28 July) announced the launch of its carbon calculator, a new digital tool that will enable consumers to fully offset their emissions on their Ryanair flight. This new feature will calculate the carbon emissions per passenger on every Ryanair route and will allow customers to pay the full carbon cost of their flight contributing to environmental initiatives.

With this development, Ryanair is delighted to expand its carbon offset programme which currently allows customers to contribute €2 towards carbon offset projects. These contributions support several environmental initiatives, including Renature Monchique – a reforestation project in the Algarve; the distribution of energy-efficient cookstoves in Uganda by First Climate; Balikesir’s Wind Power Plant Project in Turkey and Improved Kitchen Regimes in Malawi powered by CO2 Balance (the latter two in partnership with Shell).

Since Ryanair’s voluntary carbon offset scheme commenced, customers have contributed over €3.5m to environmental projects and Ryanair believes the expansion of its carbon offset programme will be greatly welcomed by its customers throughout Europe. Ryanair already has the lowest CO2 emissions per passenger/km of any major airline in Europe (66g) and by switching to Ryanair, passengers can now further reduce their CO2 emissions.

Although Ryanair’s CO2 emissions per passenger/km are already the lowest of any major EU airline, it believes that aviation must play a leading role in addressing climate change, and is placing an increased emphasis on mitigating how its business impacts the environment. By 2030, Ryanair’s goal is to power 12.5% of its flights with sustainable aviation fuels – this together with the $22bn investment in new Boeing 737 8-200 ‘Gamechanger’ aircraft will significantly reduce its CO2 and noise emissions over the next decade and help Ryanair achieve its aim of being a carbon neutral airline by 2050.

 

Director of Sustainability at Ryanair, Thomas Fowler said:

“Hundreds of thousands of Ryanair customers every year are already choosing to contribute and support the environment by selecting carbon contribution at their time of booking. The expansion of our Carbon Offset Scheme to enable our customers to fully offset the CO2 of their Ryanair flight will greatly enhance the capabilities of each of our environmental partners who are actively working on carbon offsetting programs.

Sustainability and environmental impact are considered in every business decision made in Ryanair and we are truly dedicated to being a net carbon neutral airline by 2050. Ryanair has the youngest fleet age of any major airline and this will further reduce now that we have taken delivery of our first Boeing 737-8200 ‘Gamechanger’ aircraft – which are more fuel efficient [burning 16% less fuel per seat]; will lower noise emissions by 40% and have 8 more seats per aircraft. Ryanair has set a goal to power 12.5% of all flights with sustainable aviation fuels by 2030, having recently announced a partnership with Trinity College Dublin to engage in best-in-class research on this. We only operate point-to-point routes, have industry leading load factors and are delighted to have already removed over 80%  of non-recyclable plastics from our flights.

Ryanair is committed to being a net carbon neutral airline by 2050 and the expansion of our offset scheme will further pave our way to achieving this goal while helping our environmental partners further their carbon reduction programs.”

 

Malta Air’s first Boeing 737-8200 “Gamechanger” arrived in Malta today, 27^th July. The aircraft, proudly flying Maltese colours (see below), was welcomed to Malta by Transport Minister Ian Borg, Malta Air CEO David O’Brien, and Civil Aviation D.G., Captain Charles Pace, who flew in on the first 737-8200 flight to Malta.

The brand-new Boeing 737-8200 “Gamechanger” will further enhance Malta Air and the Ryanair Group’s environmental leadership. These new aircraft carry 4% more passengers than the 737-800s, and reduce fuel consumption by 16% per seat, lower CO2 emissions by a similar amount, and cut noise emissions by 40%. They will enable the Ryanair Group to develop its environmentally friendly, great service, flights direct to Malta as its leads European aviation recovery.

 

Ian Borg, Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects, said today,

“I welcome this new Malta Air B737-8200 aircraft; the first, we hope, of many to Malta. This new aircraft addition to the Malta register is a strong endorsement of the excellence and professionalism of Malta’s Civil Aviation Directorate. Direct air connections are vital to Malta and I am delighted that these new aircraft can deliver more connections and visitors to Malta, but at the same time reduce fuel, CO₂ and noise emissions. Our mission is to build on the strong aviation platform we have developed, and we look forward to working with Malta Air and other airlines to further develop Malta as a leader in aviation and environmental excellence.”

 

Malta Air CEO, David O’Brien said, “Malta Air is proud to fly the Maltese Flag on our new “Gamechanger” aircraft. We wish to thank the Transport Malta – Civil Aviation Directorate for their professional and rigorous oversight of the introduction of the “Gamechanger” aircraft to our fleet. Our team of over 3,500 Aviation professionals at Malta Air will continue to work hard to secure as many of the Ryanair Group’s 210 “Gamechanger” aircraft order as possible for Malta Air. We look forward also to growing our current 6 aircraft base at Malta substantially over the coming years and adding to the 57 direct Malta routes currently served by the Ryanair Group.

I am therefore pleased to announce nine new direct Malta routes today; starting this Winter to Eindhoven, Bucharest, Kiev, Lourdes, Milan Malpensa, Paphos, Tallin, Warsaw and Zagreb. To celebrate, Ryanair have launched a seat sale with fares available for just €19.99, which must be booked by midnight 29^th July on the Ryanair.com website.”

Ryanair Holdings plc today (26 July) reported a Q1 loss of €273m, compared to a PY Q1 loss of €185m. Features of this Q1 performance included:

 

• Q1 traffic rebounded from 0.5m to 8.1m as capacity recovered in May & June.
• 1^st B737-8200 “Gamechanger” delivered in June (12 for peak S.21).
• Strong June cash balance of €4.06bn (up from €3.15bn at 31 Mar.).
• €1.2bn 5-year unsecured bond issued in May at record low 0.875% coupon.
• Net debt fell from €2.28bn at 31 Mar. to €1.66bn at 30 June (€850m bond repaid in June).
• 379 new routes & 10 new bases announced for 2021.
• Customer Advisory Panel appointed – 1^st meeting in Sept.

 

Q1 – Group	30 Jun. 2020	30 Jun. 2021	Change
Customers	0.5m	8.1m	+7.6m
Load Factor	61%	73%	+12pts
Revenue	€125m	€371m	+196%
Op. Costs	€313m	€675m	+116%
Net Loss	(€185m)	(€273m)	-47%

 

Ryanair Holdings Group CEO, Michael O’Leary, said:

 

“COVID-19:

Covid-19 continued to wreak havoc on our business during Q1 with most Easter flights cancelled and a slower than expected easing of EU Govt. travel restrictions into May and June.  Significant uncertainty around travel green lists (particularly in the UK) and extreme Govt. caution in Ireland meant that Q1 bookings were close-in and at low fares.  We kept aircraft and crews current throughout the quarter and recruited additional cabin crew to enable us recover quickly in Q2 as Covid restrictions ease.  The 1^st July rollout of EU Digital Covid Certificates (“DCC”) and the scrapping of quarantine for vaccinated arrivals to the UK from mid-July has seen a surge in bookings over recent weeks.  Pricing remains below pre Covid-19 levels and there will continue to be great value for Ryanair guests travelling this summer as we focus on recovering traffic, jobs and tourism across our European network.  Based on current (close-in) bookings, we expect traffic to rise from over 5m in June to almost 9m in July, and over 10m in Aug., as long as there are no further Covid setbacks in Europe.  We will continue our load active/yield passive strategy as we recover load factors over the course of FY22.

 

The Covid-19 crisis has triggered the collapse of many European airlines including Flybe, Norwegian, Germanwings, Level and Stobart and led to substantial capacity cuts at many others including Alitalia, TAP, LOT, SAS, etc.  The tsunami of State Aid from EU Govts. to their insolvent flag carriers (Alitalia, AirFrance/KLM, LOT, Lufthansa, SAS, TAP and others) will distort EU competition and prop up high cost, inefficient, flag carriers for many years.  We expect intra-European capacity to be materially lower for the foreseeable future.  This will create growth opportunities for Ryanair to extend airport incentives, as the Group takes delivery of 210 new Boeing 737 “Gamechanger” aircraft.  We are encouraged by the high rate of vaccinations across Europe.  If, as is presently predicted, most of Europe’s adult population is fully vaccinated by Sept., then we believe that we can look forward to a strong recovery in air travel for the second half of the fiscal year and well into S.22 – as is presently the case in domestic US air travel.

 

THE ENVIRONMENT & CUSTOMER SERVICE:

Ryanair has repeatedly shown we can grow traffic while reducing our impact on the environment.  Every passenger that switches to Ryanair from Europe’s legacy airlines reduces their CO₂ emissions by almost 50% per flight.  Over the next 5-years our traffic will grow to 200m p.a.  This will be achieved on a fleet that balances the demand for low fares with the need for sustainable flying.  Our new B737-8200 “Gamechanger” aircraft (a $22bn+ investment) offers 4% more seats, but delivers 16% lower fuel burn and 40% lower noise emissions, helps to meaningfully lower Ryanair’s CO₂ and noise footprint over the next decade.

 

We continue to work actively with the EU, fuel suppliers and aircraft manufacturers to incentivise sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) use.  We are working with A4E and the EU Commission to accelerate reform to the Single European Sky, to minimise ATC delays and lower fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions.  Last year Ryanair received an industry leading “B-” climate protection rating from CDP[1], and we are working to improve this to an “A” rating over the next 2 years.  In April, Ryanair established a Sustainable Aviation Research Centre partnership with Trinity College Dublin to accelerate the development of SAFs.  Ryanair’s goal is to power 12.5% of our flights with SAF by 2030 (well ahead of the 5% recently mandated by the EU Fit for 55 Proposals).  Earlier this month we launched a new carbon calculator enabling customers to (voluntarily) offset their carbon footprint on every Ryanair flight that they book.  These initiatives will help Ryanair achieve our target of lowering CO₂ per passenger/km by 10% to just 60 grams by 2030.

 

In July, Ryanair announced a 7 member Customer Advisory Panel.  Following over 10,000 applications from across 16 countries, the final panel represents a diverse cross-section of Ryanair customers (with members from Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK).  We will welcome this Panel to Dublin in Sept. for our first Customer Advisory meeting, with future meetings to take place in other major European cities.   The advice and input from the Panel will help shape Ryanair’s continuing customer improvements programme, re-enforcing our commitment to delivering the lowest fares, on-time flights and a great customer experience as the Group returns to strong post Covid growth.

 

Q1 FY22 BUSINESS REVIEW:

 

Revenue & Costs

Q1 scheduled revenue increased 91% to €192m due to a rise in traffic from 0.5m to 8.1m (at a 73% load factor). While traffic recovered significantly (compared to PY Q1), the cancellation of Easter traffic and the delayed relaxation of Govt. travel restrictions across the EU into May and June required significant price stimulation.  Ancillary revenue performed well, generating approx. €22 per passenger, as more guests choose priority boarding and reserved seating.  As a result, total revenue increased by almost 200% to over €370m in Q1.  A sevenfold increase in sectors saw operating costs increase 116% to €675m, driven primarily by variable costs such as fuel, airport & handling and route charges.  The Group’s fuel requirements are just under 60% hedged for FY22 at $565 per metric tonne and approx. 35% hedged for FY23 at $600.  Carbon credits are fully hedged for FY22 and approx. 35% hedged for FY23 at under €24 per EUA (compared to forward rates of over €50).

 

During Q1 our Route Development team continued their work with airport partners across Europe, and have negotiated lower airport costs, recovery incentives and the extension of many low cost airport growth deals.  In addition to previously announced deals (with Billund, Riga, Stockholm, Zadar & Zagreb) and long term extensions of low-cost growth deals in London Stansted (to 2028), Milan Bergamo (to 2028) and Brussels Charleroi (to 2030), the Group has doubled its capacity in Rome (Fiumicino), added new routes to Helsinki and will launch new bases in Turin (Italy) and Agadir (Morocco) this winter.

 

In June Ryanair took delivery of our first 3 B737-8200 “Gamechanger” aircraft from our 210 orderbook.  The Gamechangers have 4% more seats, 16% lower fuel burn and 40% lower noise emissions and will, we believe, further widen the cost gap between Ryanair and all other European airlines for the next decade.  While it is early days (and load factors have not yet recovered to pre Covid levels) we are very pleased with the operational performance and lower fuel burn recorded on these aircraft.  The feedback from our guests is resoundingly positive as they enjoy the extra leg room and 40% less noise.  We hope to increase our fleet of Gamechangers to over 60 in advance of S.22 and these new aircraft will drive our traffic growth to 200m p.a. by FY26.

 

Balance Sheet & Liquidity

Ryanair’s balance sheet is one of the strongest in the industry with a BBB credit rating (S&P and Fitch), €4.06bn cash and almost 90% of our B737 fleet unencumbered at quarter end. In May Ryanair issued a €1.2bn 5-year, unsecured, bond at a record low coupon of 0.875%.  In June the Group repaid its maturing €850m (2014) 1.875% bond.  Strong operating cashflows and supplier reimbursements drove a €0.62bn reduction in net debt to €1.66bn at 30 June (31 March: €2.28bn).  This balance sheet strength enables the Group to capitalise on the many growth opportunities that will be available in Europe in the post Covid-19 recovery.

 

OUTLOOK:

FY22 continues to be challenging, with Covid-19 travel restrictions prolonging uncertainty.  Following the 1^st July rollout of EU DCC’s (and the relaxation of the UK’s quarantine rules) for fully vaccinated persons, our Group has seen Q2 bookings recover strongly (albeit at low fares).  With the booking curve remaining very close-in and fares well below pre Covid-19 levels, visibility for the remainder of FY22 is close to zero.  It therefore remains impossible to provide meaningful FY22 guidance at this time.  We believe that FY22 traffic has improved to a range of 90m to 100m (previously guided at the lower end of an 80m to 120m passenger range) and (cautiously) expect that the likely outcome for FY22 is somewhere between a small loss and breakeven.  This is dependent on the continued rollout of vaccines this summer, and no adverse Covid variant developments.

 

As we look beyond the Covid-19 recovery, and the successful completion of vaccination rollouts, the Ryanair Group expects to have a materially lower cost base, a very strong balance sheet and industry leading traffic recovery.  Our new B737 “Gamechanger” aircraft will reduce fleet costs and unit costs (thanks to its attractive pricing, higher seat density and 16% lower fuel burn) for the next decade.  They will enhance revenue opportunities with 4% more seats, enabling the Group to fund lower fares and capitalise on the many growth opportunities that are now available across Europe, especially where competitor airlines have substantially cut capacity or failed. We are seeing a strong rebound of pent up travel demand into Aug. & Sept. and we expect this to continue into the second half of FY22, with pre Covid-19 growth planned to resume strongly in summer 2022.”

Ryanair today (14 July) noted the EU General Court’s ruling on discriminatory State aid favouring Austrian Airlines, a subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group which in June 2020 was granted €150m aid by the Austrian government. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Austrian Airlines has received €600m in State aid and the Lufthansa Group more than €11bn.

While the Covid-19 crisis has caused damage to all airlines that contribute to the economy and the connectivity of Austria, the Austrian government decided to support only its inefficient former “national” airline (now German-owned), discriminating against all others in clear breach of the fundamental principles of EU law. Ryanair subsequently referred the European Commission’s approval of this €150m illegal subsidy to Austrian Airlines to the EU General Court in November 2020. Ryanair will appeal today’s General Court judgment to the Court of Justice of the EU.

 

A Ryanair spokesperson said:

“One of the EU’s greatest achievements is the creation of a single market for air transport. The European Commission’s approval of State aid to Austrian Airlines went against the fundamental principles of EU law and have turned back the clock on the process of liberalisation in air transport by rewarding inefficiency and encouraging unfair competition.

Ryanair is a truly European airline and a champion of competition and consumers. Our instinct in a crisis is to seek efficiencies and cost savings, to offer more routes at lower fares – while remaining Europe’s greenest airline. We will now ask the EU Court of Justice to overturn this unfair subsidy. 

If Europe is to emerge from this crisis with a single market that serves the consumers and the economy, airlines must be allowed to compete on a level playing field. Undistorted competition  weeds out inefficiency and drives low fares and choice. Subsidies, on the other hand, encourage inefficiency and will harm consumers for decades to come.”

Ryanair, Europe’s No. 1 airline, today (12^th July) announced a recruitment drive for 2,000 new pilots to crew aircraft deliveries over the next 3 years as Ryanair recovers and rebuilds from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ryanair has now taken delivery of its first Boeing 737-8200 Gamechanger aircraft, which help Ryanair lower costs, cut fuel consumption and lower noise and CO2 emissions. This investment in new aircraft arriving through the recovery phase of the Covid-19 Pandemic deepens Ryanair’s environmental commitment as Europe’s greenest, cleanest major airline and also creates these exciting opportunities for experienced and aspiring pilots to secure the best pilot jobs in aviation. Ryanair Pilots enjoy great pay, industry leading five on, four off rosters, outstanding career development and world class training. As part of Ryanair’s career development initiatives, most Captain vacancies created by these new aircraft deliveries will be filled by internal promotions which creates opportunities for replacement First Officers, and ultimately new cadet pilots who can kickstart their pilot career with Ryanair so they can grow into the next generation of Ryanair’s First Officers and Captains.

Training courses take place through 2021 to be ready for Summer 2022 for positions all over Europe. Ryanair has partnered with Airline Flight Academy in Dublin to deliver Boeing 737 Training Courses as part of this recruitment drive. Aspiring pilots can also check out careers.ryanair.com/pilots for details of Ryanair Mentored training programmes.

Ryanair’s People Director Darrell Hughes said:  

“As we take delivery of more than 210 Boeing 737-8200 gamechanger aircraft, Ryanair will recruit 2,000+ pilots over the next 3 years to fill positions created by this growth. This is great news for experienced and aspiring pilots but also for our own pilots who will enjoy fast tracked promotions. Throughout the pandemic, Ryanair has worked closely with our people to save jobs and we are delighted to start planning for a return to growth over the coming years as we recover from the Covid-19 crisis and grow to 200m guests by FY2026’’.

Editor’s note: Candidates interested in these opportunities should visit careers.ryanair.com/pilots for further information.