Ryanair today (20 May) reported a full year profit of €1.02bn (excl. Lauda). Strong traffic growth, up 7% to 139m, was offset by a 6% decline in fares. Strong ancillary growth (+19%) was offset by higher fuel, staff and EU261 costs.

 

Full-year Results (IFRS)*	Mar. 31, 2018	Mar. 31, 2019	% Change
Guests	130.3m	139.1m	+7%
Load Factor	95%	96%	+1%
Revenue	€7.15bn	€7.56bn	+6%
PAT	€1.45bn	€1.02bn	-29%

* excl. Lauda €139.5m exceptional start-up loss (FY19).  Group traffic (incl. Lauda) was 142m

 

Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said:

“As previously guided, Ryanair (excl. Lauda) reports a full year after tax profit of €1.02bn.  Short-haul capacity growth and the absence of Easter in Q4 led to a 6% fare decline, which stimulated 7% traffic growth to over 139m (142m guests incl. Lauda).  Ancillary sales performed strongly up 19% to €2.4bn, which drove total revenue growth of 6% to €7.6bn.

 

FY19 highlights include:

• fare fell 6% to just €37
• Traffic grew 9% to 142m (incl. Lauda)
• Ancillary revenue rose 19% to €2.4bn
• end fleet grew to 455 B737 & 19 A320 aircraft
• 406 new routes and 9 new bases launched
• Ryanair Sun (Buzz) traded profitably in Yr.1
• Purchase of Lauda completed in Dec. with an exceptional Yr.1 loss of €139m
• UK AOC received in Dec.
• Union agreements concluded in most major markets
• Over €560m returned to shareholders via buybacks

Revenue

Revenues rose 6% to €7.6bn due to 7% higher traffic, a 6% cut in ave. fares to €37, while  Ryanair Labs continues to stimulate ancillary sales growth with spend per guest up 11% to over €17.  Priority boarding and reserved seat services grew strongly.  Ryanair Labs continues to improve our digital platform (website, app & 3^rd party ancillary plug-ins).

 

Cost Leadership

Ryanair has the lowest unit costs of any EU airline, and the cost gap with EU competitors continues to widen. FY19 was a year of investment in our people, our support systems and our business as we grow to 200m guests p.a. by 2024.  Ex-fuel unit costs rose 5% (better than previously guided 6%) due to €200m higher staff costs (incl. 20% pilot pay increases) and €50m higher EU261 costs due to the repeated ATC staff shortage disruptions in FY19. As weaker European airlines are sold or fail, airports are competing to attract Ryanair’s efficient, high load factor, traffic growth.  Our airport costs are 35% lower than our nearest competitor. During FY19 our oil bill increased by €440m. We are 90% hedged for FY20 at $709 per tonne and 35% hedged for Q1 FY21 at $654.

 

Group Airlines

In S.2018 we launched Ryanair Sun (now rebranded “Buzz”), our Polish AOC, with 5 B737 aircraft offering charter flights to/from Poland.  Buzz has taken over Ryanair’s scheduled bases in Poland and will operate a fleet of 25 aircraft in FY20 (incl. 7 for charters).  The Buzz management team successfully delivered a modest profit in their first year of operations.

In December 2018, Lauda (an Austrian AOC) became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Ryanair Group. We consolidated 3m customers in its first year of operations to March 2019 but suffered exceptional start-up losses of €139.5m, mainly due to the very late release of its S.2018 schedules, very low promotional fares, expensive short-term aircraft leases and an unhedged fuel position. Lauda enters its second year with a larger (lower-cost) fleet of 23 A320 aircraft, and a target of just over 6m guests p.a. They have signed agreements to grow this fleet to 35 x A320 aircraft for S.2020 and by year 3 (FY21) we believe Lauda will grow to carry over 8m guests p.a. and will be trading profitably.

 

Higher oil prices and lower fares have seen a wave of EU airline failures including Primera (UK & Spain), Small Planet, Azur and Germania (Germany), Sky Works (Switz.), VLM (Belgium), Cobalt (Cyprus), Cello & Flybmi (UK) and WOW (Iceland).  Flybe (UK) was sold, while both Alitalia and Thomas Cook airline are currently for sale.

Ryanair closed unprofitable bases in Bremen & Eindhoven and we cut aircraft numbers in Niederrhein, Hahn and the Canary Islands. Norwegian has closed multiple bases (many where they compete with Ryanair), including Rome, Las Palmas, Palma, Tenerife, Edinburgh & Belfast, and they will cut their Dublin base from 6 to 1 aircraft in October. Wizz (Poznan), Lufthansa (Dusseldorf) and EasyJet (Oporto) have also announced base cuts and/or closures in recent months. We expect further consolidation and airline failures in winter 2019 and again into 2020 due to over-capacity, weaker fares, and higher oil prices particularly among those airlines who are significantly unhedged, or unable to hedge.

Boeing 737 MAX

We have delayed the delivery of our first 5 B737-MAX aircraft to Winter 2019 (subject to regulatory approval by EASA). We continue to have utmost confidence in these aircraft which have 4% more seats, are 16% more fuel efficient and generate 40% lower noise emissions. They are hedged at an average €/$ rate of 1.24 out to FY24, and will deliver significant unit cost savings for the next 5 years, although the delayed deliveries in 2019 means that we will not see any meaningful cost benefit until FY21.

 

Balance Sheet & Fleet

The Group’s BBB+ rated balance sheet is one of the strongest in the industry.  Almost 95% of our 455 aircraft fleet is owned, with over 63% debt free. At year end the Group had €3.2bn gross cash. Ryanair generated almost €2bn net cash from operations in FY19, but spent over €1.5bn on capex (primarily aircraft, simulators, engines & hangars), returned €560m to shareholders in share buybacks, and repaid more than €400m of debt.  As a result, year-end net debt rose slightly to €450m.  We recently concluded a low-cost, €750m unsecured (5-year) bank facility.  This facility, coupled with strong operating cashflows, will fund this year’s peak capex of c.€2bn, maturing secured debt and other general corporate purposes.  We are also in advanced negotiations to sell 10 of our oldest B737s for over $170m before the end of March 2020.

 

Shareholder Distributions

The Board has approved a €700m share buyback which will commence later this week and run over the next 9 to 12 months.  We expect to split this approx. €500m/€200m between ADR’s and ordinary shares, although the Board has discretion to revise this allocation.  This latest buyback will bring to almost €7bn of the funds returned to shareholders since 2008.

 

FY20 Guidance

While we separately disclosed Lauda’s year 1 start-up loss as exceptional in FY19, their FY20 results will not be split out in the Ryanair Group income statement.  FY20 guidance is therefore for the consolidated Ryanair Group.

 

Our outlook for FY20 remains cautious on pricing. Traffic will grow by 8% to 153m. Assuming revenue per pax (“RPP”) growth of 3%, we are guiding broadly flat Group profits. This will range from €750m if RPP rises 2%, up to €950m if RPP rises 4%.  While H1 bookings are slightly ahead of last year, fares are lower and we expect this trend will continue through S.2019. We have zero H2 visibility.  Costs will increase as our full-year fuel bill jumps by another €460m.  Ex-fuel unit costs will rise by just 2%, mainly due to stronger sterling, the absence of Lauda prior-year cost comparisons for most of H1 and delivery delays of the B737 MAX aircraft this year. This guidance is heavily dependent on close-in peak summer fares, H2 prices, the absence of security events, and no negative Brexit developments.”

First European Airline To Introduce World Leading Pilot Training Safety App

Ryanair, Europe’s No. 1 airline, today (15 May) announced a six-year deal with CEFA Aviation, a leader in flight safety and pilot training software and services, to provide world first cloud-based mobile service CEFA AMS (Aviation Mobile Services) for Ryanair’s pilot training programmes.

With this new partnership, launched at EASA’s Safety in Aviation Forum for Europe in Brussels, Ryanair will become the first airline in Europe to introduce this breakthrough pilot training innovation with the only app in the world allowing pilots to replay their flights on their tablet after landing.

In Brussels, Ryanair’s Chief Pilot Ray Conway said:

“This agreement marks the beginning of the next chapter in Ryanair pilot training and will set new standards for delivering constructive feedback to our crews. Over the next year we will monitor pilot performance to ensure that our pilots not only deliver to the highest standards of safety and efficiency in the industry but set new standards of excellence for the years ahead.

Training to the highest standards of safety and efficiency is, and always has been a top priority for Ryanair. Our focus on safety is unrelenting. Our  pilots are among the best in the business and our 34 year safety record speaks for itself. Innovating with this new mobile service has been a development of our 3-year Corporate Safety Strategy ensuring that safety & security remain at the heart of everything we do in Ryanair.”

Dominique Mineo, CEFA Aviation’s CEO and founder said:

“We are extremely satisfied to partner with the No.1 airline in Europe and to welcome this low-cost carrier into the CEFA AMS community. After Asia and our launch customer All Nippon Airways, it is highly important to deploy our innovation within Europe with this continent’s No. 1 airline, and an airline with an absolute commitment to safe operations. We will benefit from this new cooperation through Ryanair’s return on experience – allowing us to continuously enhance our mobile service.”

Captain Andy O’Shea, Head of Crew Training at Ryanair, said:

“The implementation of CEFA Aviation’s world first mobile service testifies Ryanair’s innovative strength as well as our strong desire to lead the shift of the pilot training paradigm as advocated by EASA. Our airline has high hopes for CEFA AMS which integrates into our world-leading OFDM (Operational Flight Data Monitoring) system that was adopted fleet-wide in 2004.

The CEFA AMS flight replay facility app is a milestone in our endeavors to enhance our pilots’ proficiency. It is the perfect match with our unique OFDM replay facility in our fleet of Fixed Base Simulators. We are proud to initiate a change designed to revolutionize not only the debriefing and training culture within the company, but also for European aviation, thus making the sky safer.”

Ryanair, Europe’s No. 1 airline, today (9 May) celebrated its 25^th year anniversary at Manchester Airport, where it has carried over 30.1m customers since low fares first arrived at Manchester Airport in 1994.

Since Ryanair’s first Manchester flights, Ryanair has grown:

• To carrying over 30.1m customers to/from Manchester (reaching 11m milestone in 2014)
• From 1 route to Dublin to over 60 routes
• To opening Manchester base in 2011, now with 12 based a/c ($1.2bn)
• From carrying 153,000 customers p.a. to over 5.4m customers p.a.

Manchester consumers and visitors can now book their holidays on 63 routes for Summer 2019 and a further 52 winter 2019 routes as far out as March 2020, enjoying even lower fares and Ryanair’s 2019 customer care improvements, including:

• Lowest Fares – find a cheaper fare within 3 hours, get paid the difference plus €/£ 5 MyRyanair credit
• Punctuality – deliver 90% target (excl. ATC) or 5% off following month’s air fares
• Customer Care Charter – EU261 claims processed in 10 days, new 24/7 support, connect in 2 mins
• Care Improvements – 48-hour free of charge grace period for changes to bookings
• Environmental Improvements – carbon offset programme, environmental partners & plastic free in 5 years
• New Ryanair Choice – €199 annual fee for free seats, fast-track & priority boarding for freq. guests
• Digital Improvements – new fare finder, sports tickets, bespoke travel guides & faster mobile

 

To celebrate, Ryanair has launched a seat sale on its Manchester routes with fares available from just £12.99, for travel in May, which must be booked by midnight Monday (13 May), only on the Ryanair.com website.

 

Ryanair’s Eimear Ryan said:

 “Ryanair is pleased to celebrate our 25^th anniversary at Manchester airport where, as its largest airline, we have carried over 30.1m customers since 1994. Manchester consumers and visitors can now book their holidays on 63 routes for summer 2019 and 52 routes for winter 2019. We are also pleased to announce two new routes to Prague and Milan Malpensa for winter 2019.

 To celebrate, we are releasing seats on our Manchester routes on sale from £12.99, for travel in May, which are available for booking until Monday (13 May). Since these amazing low prices will be snapped up quickly, customers should log onto www.ryanair.com and avoid missing out.

 

Stephen Turner, Commercial Director at Manchester Airport, said:

 “We are delighted to celebrate Ryanair’s 25th anniversary from Manchester Airport. Over the last two and a half decades the airline has grown massively here at the UK’s global gateway in the North.

 Ryanair’s routes and fares are incredibly popular with our 28.5 million annual passengers, and we look forward to the future and celebrating further milestones.”

Ryanair, Europe’s favourite low fares airline, today (8 May) announced the deployment of GlobalBeacon, a live flight monitoring platform that combines FlightAware’s data processing capabilities and web-interface with global flight tracking coverage from Aireon^SM.

The Aireon network tracks aircraft via their ADS-B (automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast) out antennas, which are mandated in many parts of the world including throughout Europe. This enables most airlines and aircraft operators to take advantage of GlobalBeacon without requiring additional equipment.

All airlines operating in Europe are now required by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to track their aircraft at a frequency of one position every 15 minutes during normal operations. It is expected that by 2021, they will need to receive one position every minute if an aircraft is in distress. In the event of an incident, this will improve response efficiency by inherently confining the search and rescue radius to an area of 11 kilometers. The new EASA requirements are based on the Global Aeronautical Distress & Safety System (GADSS), which was created by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) largely in response to the loss of flights AF447 and MH370.

GlobalBeacon far outperforms the current 15-minute requirement and proactively enables Ryanair to meet future expectations for flight tracking since it provides minute-by-minute position updates at all times.

Ryanair’s COO Peter Bellew said:

“At Ryanair, the safety of our customers, crew and aircraft is our number one priority and this latest partnership adds to our already industry-leading safety record. Without installing any new equipment on our fleet, we are able to monitor our aircraft without gaps in coverage and will be immediately alerted if one of our aircraft is in distress. FlightAware has made this service extremely cost effective and easy to deploy.”  

FlightAware’s Founder & CEO, Daniel Baker said:

“GlobalBeacon makes it straightforward and cost-effective for airlines to modernize their flight monitoring practices to comply with GADSS standards and recommended practices. As an industry leader and Europe’s largest low-cost carrier, we’re thrilled that Ryanair has joined airlines around the world in leveraging it to achieve improved passenger safety and operational awareness.”

Ryanair Holdings PLC today (2 May) released April traffic statistics as follows:

 

	2018	2019      (LF)	Growth
Ryanair Group	12.3m	13.5m     (96%)	+10%
Ryanair	12.3m	13.0m     (96%)	+5%
Lauda	–	0.5m     (92%)	–

                                                                                   

 

Rolling Annual

131.4m

142.3m    (96%)

+9%

 

 

• Ryanair operated over 75,000 scheduled flights in April.

Ryanair, Europe’s No. 1 airline, today (11 April) launched its connecting flights service at Brussels Charleroi Airport, with 27 routes including Alicante, Budapest, Milan Bergamo and Prague, providing Ryanair customers with the opportunity to book and transfer directly onto connecting Ryanair flights.

Ryanair customers can now:

• Book connecting flights on 27 routes via Brussels Charleroi on Ryanair.com
• Transfer ‘airside’ between connecting flights without having to go ‘landside’
• Have their checked-in baggage transferred through to their final destination
• Use one booking reference for both flights
• Travel to a wider range of destinations across Europe including:

 

From	Destinations (via Brussels Charleroi)
Malaga	Pisa, Thessaloniki
Alicante	Rome Ciampino, Malta
Athens	Faro, Ibiza, Marseille, Turin, Valencia
Milan Bergamo	Girona, Reus
Bologna	Faro
Bari	Faro, Porto
Budapest	Faro, Girona
Cagliari	Lisbon
Comiso	Warsaw Modlin
Faro	Krakow
Girona	Naples, Lamezia, Warsaw Modlin
Ibiza	Warsaw Modlin
Lisbon	Prague
Prague	Lamezia, Tenerife South
Reus	Thessaloniki

 

Ryanair consumers and visitors can now book their holidays as far out as March 2020, enjoying even lower fares and Ryanair’s customer care improvements, including:

 

• Lowest Fares – find a cheaper fare within 3 hours, get paid the difference plus €5 MyRyanair credit
• Punctuality – deliver 90% target (excl. ATC) or 5% off following month’s air fares
• Customer Care Charter – EU261 claims processed in 10 days, new 24/7 support, connect in 2 mins
• Care Improvements – 48-hour free of charge grace period for changes to bookings
• Environmental Improvements – carbon offset programme, environmental partnerships & plastic free in 5 years
• New Ryanair Choice – €199 annual fee for free seats, fast-track & priority boarding for freq. guests
• Digital Improvements – new fare finder, sports tickets, bespoke travel guides & faster mobile

 

To celebrate its new connecting flights, Ryanair has launched a seat sale with fares from just €24.99 for travel between May and July, which must be booked by midnight Saturday (13 Apr), only on the Ryanair.com website.

 

Ryanair’s Yann Delomez said:

“Ryanair is pleased to launch our connecting flights service at Brussels Charleroi Airport with 27 routes available, including services to/from Alicante, Budapest, Milan Bergamo and Prague, offering our customers even more low fare choice. Customers flying on these routes will be able to transfer onto their next flight at Brussels Charleroi without having to go landside, and will have their bags checked through to their final destination.

To celebrate our extended connecting flights service, we are releasing seats for sale from just €24.99 for travel between May and July, which must be booked by midnight Saturday (13 Apr). Since these amazing low fares will be snapped up quickly, customers should log onto www.ryanair.com and avoid missing out.”

Ryanair, evropský letecký dopravce č. 1, dnes (3. dubna) slaví první let na své nové lince z Prahy do chorvatského Zadaru, kterou bude v rámci letního letového řádu provozovat dvakrát týdně. Zároveň společnost oslavila zahájení provozu šestnácti nových linek, které bude z Prahy operovat během letního letového řádu. Celkem bude společnost Ryanair z Prahy v rámci letního letového řádu nabízet 31 linek včetně zmíněných 16 novinek v podobě spojení do Ammánu, Bari, Benátek Treviso, Bournemouthu, Billundu, Kodaně, Göteborgu, Palmy de Mallorca, Paříže Beauvais, Pescary, Pisy, Rigy, Stockholmu, Marseille, Marrákeše a Zadaru.

 

Čeští i zahraniční cestující si již nyní mohou rezervovat cesty celkem do 31 destinací a to až do března roku 2020. Mohou tak využít ještě nižší ceny a vylepšený zákaznický servis společnosti Ryanair, například:

 

• Nejnižší tarify – najděte levnější nabídku v rozmezí 3 hodin a my vám uhradíme rozdíl a přidáme 5 €/£ v podobě MyRyanair kreditu
• Přesnost – v 90 % přiletíme na čas (s vyloučením vlivu řízení letového provozu), nebo vám příští měsíc poskytneme slevu 5 % z ceny letenek
• Deklarace péče o zákazníka – nároky dle nařízení EU261 vypořádáme do 10 dnů, zákaznická podpora je nově k dispozici non-stop, spojeni budete do 2 minut
• Lepší péče o zákazníka – poskytujeme 48 hodin na bezplatné změny rezervací
• Lepší péče o životní prostředí – program kompenzace dopadů letecké přepravy na životní prostředí, environmentální partnerství a iniciativa bez plastů do pěti let
• Nový program Ryanair Choice – za roční poplatek 199 EUR získají věrní zákazníci možnost výběru místa v letadle zdarma a výhody služeb fast-track a přednostního nástupu do letadla
• Online novinky – nový vyhledávač tarifů, prodej vstupenek na sportovní události, cestovní průvodci na míru a rychlejší prohlížení z mobilního telefonu

 

Zahájení provozu šestnácti nových linek a oficiální start letní sezóny oslaví společnost Ryanair tím, že uvolní do prodeje letenky pro lety z Prahy za ceny začínající na pouhých 389,- Kč s odletem během května 2019. Letenky bude možné koupit do páteční půlnoci (5. dubna) pouze na webových stránkách dopravce: Ryanair.com.

 

V Praze za leteckou společnost Ryanair uvedl Denis Barabas:

 

„Jsme rádi, že rozšiřujeme síť našich leteckých spojení a zahajujeme provoz podle svého prozatím největšího letního letového řádu na Letišti Václava Havla Praha. Šestnáct nových linek z Prahy, konkrétně do Ammánu, Bari, Benátek Treviso, Bournemouthu, Billundu, Kodaně, Göteborgu, Palmy de Mallorca, Paříže Beuvais, Pescary, Pisy, Rigy, Stockholmu, Marseille, Marrákeše a Zadaru, je důkazem odhodlání společnosti Ryanair zlepšovat dopravní dostupnost Prahy a podporovat její turistický ruch, stejně tak jako přispívat ke snižování sezónnosti regionu a umožnit zahraničním turistům užít si kouzlo Prahy i během zdejšího překrásného léta.

 

Zahájení provozu nové linky oslavíme tím, že dáme do prodeje letenky pro lety z Prahy za ceny začínající na pouhých 389,- Kč s odletem v květnu 2019. Letenky bude možné koupit do páteční půlnoci (5. dubna). Letenky za tak úžasné ceny se jistě rychle vyprodají, proto by cestující měli co nejdříve navštívit stránky www.ryanair.com/cz, aby jim jedinečná nabídka neutekla.“

 

Jiří Vyskoč, výkonný ředitel leteckého obchodu Letiště Praha, řekl:

 

“Zavedením 16 nových linek se významně rozšíří nabídka letecké společnosti pro cesty po Evropě, včetně destinací v Chorvatsku a Itálii, které Letiště Praha podporuje i v rámci marketingové kampaně. V letní sezóně se také poprvé představí linky do vzdálenějších destinací, do Jordánska nebo Marrákeše. Úplnou novinkou jsou pak dovolenkové destinace jako je Pescara nebo Zadar, do kterých se nyní mohou cestující dostat mnohem pohodlněji a rychleji letadlem.“