Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (5 Apr) released its quarterly ‘Rate My Flight’ statistics, which show that 92% of surveyed customers were happy with their overall flight experience in January, February and March 2017.
Some 300,000 customers used the ‘Rate My Flight’ function in the Ryanair app in January, February and March, ranking their overall experience, boarding, crew friendliness, service onboard and range of food and drink, on a 5-star rating system, ranging from 1 star for Ok, to 3 stars for Good, to 5 stars for Excellent.
Some 92% of respondents rated their overall trip ‘Excellent/Very Good /Good’, recording similar ratings for boarding (86%), crew friendliness (95%), service onboard (93%) and range of food & drink (82%).
‘Rate My Flight’ is available in Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Polish and Spanish, via the Ryanair app, which can be downloaded from the iTunes and Google Play stores.
| Category | Excellent/Very Good/ Good | Excellent | Very Good | Good | Fair | Ok |
| Overall Experience | 92% | 43% | 35% | 14% | 4% | 4% |
| Boarding | 86% | 39% | 30% | 17% | 7% | 7% |
| Crew Friendliness | 95% | 55% | 29% | 11% | 3% | 2% |
| Service onboard | 93% | 45% | 32% | 16% | 4% | 3% |
| Food & Drink Range | 82% | 24% | 26% | 32% | 10% | 8% |
Ryanair’s Robin Kiely said:
“Rate My Flight allows customers to provide real-time reviews on their flights via the Ryanair app, from the moment they land. We welcome all customer feedback so that we can continue to improve all aspects of the Ryanair customer experience and we’re pleased that some 92% of 300,000 customers were satisfied with their Ryanair flight in January, February and March. Customers who want to rate their flight should download the Ryanair app and opt to allow push notifications and will be sent the survey through the app upon landing.”
LOAD FACTOR UNCHANGED AT 94%
OVER 500 FLIGHTS (100K PAX) CANCELLED DUE TO ATC STRIKES
Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (4 Apr) released March traffic statistics as follows:
- Traffic grew 10% to 9.4m customers.
- Load factor unchanged at 94%
- Rolling annual traffic to March grew 13% to 120m customers.
| Mar 16 | Mar 17 | Change |
| Customers | 8.5M | 9.4M | +10% |
| Load Factor | 94% | 94% | N/A |
Ryanair’s Kenny Jacobs said:
“Ryanair’s March traffic grew by 10% to 9.4m customers, while our load factor was unchanged (despite the absence of Easter) from last year at 94%, on the back of lower fares and the continuing success of our “Always Getting Better” customer experience programme. Our rolling annual traffic reached 120m. March traffic was also impacted by the cancellation of over 530 flights due to repeated ATC and some handling strikes, which cut our traffic by approx. 100,000 customers.
We call on the French Government and European Commission to take action to prevent another summer of ATC disruptions and urge all customers to sign the A4E online petition, Keep Europe’s Skies Open, (http://www.keepeuropesskiesopen.com/) to help protect Europe from repeated disruption by ATC unions.”
Ryanair today (8 Feb) announced that it has issued a 6.5 year, €750m, Eurobond at a fixed coupon of 1.125%. Ryanair is rated BBB+ (stable) by both Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings. These ratings reflect the ratings of Ryanair’s business model which as a long established track record of profitability, cash generation, and an industry leading balance sheet. The bond will be listed on the Irish Stock Exchange which offers access to both Europe and the rest of the world. The joint bookrunners were BNP Paribas, Citigroup and Crédit Agricole.
Ryanair’s Chief Financial Officer, Neil Sorahan said:
“We are pleased to have accessed the low cost Eurobond markets again. This €750m transaction was keenly priced at a fixed coupon of 1.125% p.a. This low cost finance will enable us to further reduce our aircraft ownership costs while continuing to offer the lowest fares and best customer service through our Always Getting Better programme as we grow to 200m customers p.a. by 2024.”
Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (7 Feb) launched a new annual multi-trip travel insurance service on the Ryanair.com website, offering its 119m customers the best value travel insurance, alongside Europe’s lowest air fares.
Launched in partnership with Europ Assistance, one of Europe’s leading insurance providers, the new service offers customers great cover whenever they travel, on an unlimited number of European trips, of up to 28 days each in duration.
Multi-trip insurance follows the successful launch of Ryanair Car Hire, Ryanair Rooms and Ryanair Holidays, and is the latest digital innovation delivered by Ryanair Labs, under the “Always Getting Better” programme, which includes a best-in-class personalised website, and dynamic mobile app, and will allow Ryanair to become the “Amazon of travel”.
Ryanair’s Director of Ancillary Revenue, Greg O’Gorman, said:
“As we continue to grow our annual traffic to 130m passengers in the next 12 months, our customers have expressed an increasing need for annual travel insurance cover, so we’re pleased to launch this new multi-trip insurance service on the Ryanair.com website.
We’ve partnered with Europ Assistance, a proven market leader with a solid financial standing and reputation, to provide a comprehensive and competitive annual travel insurance product and support service, at the same great low prices Ryanair customers have come to expect.”
Book your travel insurance here:
https://www.ryanair.com/ie/en/plan-trip/travel-extras/ryanair-travel-insurance
EX-FUEL UNIT COSTS CUT 6%
Ryanair, Europe’s No. 1 airline, today (6 Feb) reported that Q3 profits fell 8% to €95m, as average fares fell by 17% to just €33 per passenger, while traffic grew 16% to 29m customers. Q3 unit costs were cut by 12% (ex-fuel unit costs were down 6%).
| Q3 Results (IFRS) | Dec 31, 2015 | Dec 31, 2016 | % Change |
| Customers (m) | 24.9 | 28.8 | +16% |
| Revenue (m) | €1,330 | €1,345 | +1% |
| Profit after Tax (m) | €103 | €95 | -8% |
| Net Margin | 8% | 7% | -1pt |
| Basic EPS (euro cent) | 7.73 | 7.60 | -2% |
Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said:
“As previously guided, our fares this winter have fallen sharply as Ryanair continues to grow traffic and load factors strongly in many European markets. These falling yields were exacerbated by the sharp decline in Sterling following the Brexit vote. Ryanair responded to this weaker environment by continuing to improve our “Always Getting Better” (AGB) customer experience, cutting costs, and stimulating demand through lower fares which has seen load factors jump to record levels. Q3 highlights include:
– Ave fares down 17% to €33
– Traffic up 16% to 29m
– Load factors rose 2% to 95% (a Q3 record)
– Unit costs cut 12% (ex-fuel down 6%)
– 95 new routes and 5 new bases opened
– 10 new B737-800s delivered
– €311m returned to shareholders in Q3 under our €550m share buyback
New Base, Route & Traffic Growth
We continue to grow capacity, new routes and bases, at a time when other EU airlines are also adding capacity, and accordingly the price environment remains weak. We expect the uncertainty post Brexit, weaker Sterling and the switch of charter capacity from Turkey, Egypt and North Africa into Spain and Portugal, will continue to put downward pressure on pricing for the remainder of this year and FY18. As the airline offering the lowest fares in every market, our prices are falling faster than we initially planned but this is good news for customers, and our airport partners but bad news for competitors who cannot match our low prices. Our combination of lower fares, increased availability and AGB service improvements has stimulated industry record Q3 load factors (95%) as millions of new customers switch to Ryanair.
In Q3 we took delivery of 10 new aircraft, opened 5 bases (Bucharest, Hamburg, Nuremberg, Prague and Vilnius) and launched 95 new routes as traffic grew 16% to 29m. In March we open two new bases in Frankfurt Main (No. 84) and Naples (No. 85). Naples is benefiting from over pricing in Rome Fiumicino airport where all major airlines will cut capacity in summer 2017. These new bases extend Ryanair’s entry into primary airports where our combination of lower fares and AGB customer service continues to win market share.
We are growing strongly in Germany at a time when Air Berlin are restructuring. However we call on the German Government to follow London’s lead and break up the Berlin Airport monopoly which plans to close Tegel Airport so it can restrict capacity and increase prices, while leaving the city of Berlin with less airport capacity than Dublin. Ryanair has also lodged a complaint with the German Cartel Office (the “Bundeskartellamt”) which demonstrates how the proposed Lufthansa/Air Berlin wet lease agreement is nothing more than an old fashioned attempt at duopoly to share the market, block competition, and increase air fares.
In Q3 we concluded a new growth deal with London Stansted which will see Ryanair grow to more than 20m passengers next year, with 9 new routes, including Copenhagen, Naples and Nice and increased capacity on 11 existing routes. Ryanair expects to announce some additional UK and EU growth deals in the coming months as airports compete for our growth against the difficult backdrop of Brexit uncertainty.
We expect to continue to grow strongly in continental Europe in 2017 with more new bases and routes still to be added.
Costs & Fuel Hedging
Ryanair’s low cost base is a key differentiator with all other EU airlines. Not only have we the lowest passenger costs, but these costs are falling when many other low fare competitors are forecasting flat or rising costs. As this cost gap widens, Ryanair will continue to pass on even lower fares to our customers to ensure we grow safely and profitably. Fuel costs fell by 20% per passenger in Q3. Non-fuel unit costs were down 6% as we took delivery of new B737-800s (hedged at a blended €/$ rate of $1.31), negotiated further airport growth incentives, grew load factors, and benefited from Sterling weakness on some parts of our cost base. As we grow we are continuing to target cost savings and new deals for engine maintenance, reservation systems, and the low cost in-house development of Ryanair Labs will continue to deliver material savings over the coming years as we grow to 200m customers p.a.
Q4 fuel is 95% hedged at approx. $56bbl. We’ve also hedged over 85% of our FY18 fuel at an ave price of $49bbl which (allowing for volume growth) will deliver fuel savings of approx. €65m in FY18.
Labs and Ancillary
Our AGB programme, coupled with our lower fares, continues to attract millions of new passengers to Ryanair. In Oct we launched Ryanair Rooms initially with 2 suppliers (this will rise to 5 by March 2017). In Nov we ran 8 days of low fare promotions during cyber week which delivered record bookings. In Dec we launched Ryanair Holidays, a low cost package holiday service available initially in Germany, the UK and Ireland. This holiday service will be rolled out to other markets later in 2017. Membership of “MyRyanair” became mandatory in Q3 and will see memberships surge to 20m individual customers by year end. We believe that “MyRyanair” will enable us to better design exclusive benefits for our customers, while helping to eliminate unlicenced, mis-selling OTA’s and screen scrapers.
Punctuality
While our punctuality remains industry leading, we have struggled this winter with particularly adverse weather, repeated ATC strikes, and ATC staffing related slot delays which saw punctuality fall from 90% last year to 88% in the first nine months of FY17. We are looking at new initiatives to address this problem, including a review of our service policies such as the 2 free carry-on bags which are the cause of increasing boarding gate delays.
| Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Ave |
| FY16 | 90% | 92% | 91% | 90% | 90% | 92% | 92% | 92% | 86% | 91% |
| FY17 | 91% | 89% | 81% | 85% | 90% | 91% | 89% | 90% | 84% | 88% |
Balance Sheet and Shareholder Returns
In Nov our Board approved a €550m share buyback. We have now completed over 90% of this programme with approx. €500m spent and we expect to complete it by the end of Feb 2017. The value to shareholders of our buyback programme is demonstrated in this quarter during which PAT fell by 8%, but EPS fell by just 2%. Our ADR buyback programme has been inhibited by light volumes and the unavailability of block trades. The Board has agreed to put in place an authority to allow the Company to buy ADR’s on a more opportunistic basis (subject to market conditions and annual shareholder approvals) outside of regular buyback programmes.
Our balance sheet remains strong. In Dec we moved into a small net debt position of €576m having spent almost €1bn on CAPEX, €800m on share buybacks and €300m on debt repayments in the current year. We plan to continue to manage our cash flow prudently and expect to have a modest net debt position at year-end.
Brexit:
While it appears that we are heading for a “hard” Brexit, there is still significant uncertainty in relation to what exactly this will entail. This uncertainty will continue to represent a challenge for our business for the remainder of FY17 and FY18. We expect Sterling to remain volatile for some time and we may see a slowdown in economic growth in both the UK and Europe as we move closer to Brexit. While there may be opportunities to expand at certain UK airports (such as the recent extension of our growth deal at Stansted), we expect to grow at a slower pace than previously planned in the UK and will continue to switch capacity into other key markets around Europe. As previously noted, we hope that the UK remains a member of Europe’s “open skies” system. Until the final outcome is known, however, we will continue to adapt to changing circumstances in the best interest of our customers, people and shareholders.
Outlook
Our outlook for the remainder of FY17 is cautious. With less than 2 months of the year to go, and no Easter in March, we expect Q4 yields to decline by as much as -15%. We will carry over 119m customers in FY17, and full year ex-fuel unit costs should fall by approx. 4%. Accordingly we are maintaining our full year profit guidance in a range of €1.30bn to €1.35bn, but this guidance heavily depends on the absence of any unforeseen security events affecting close in bookings.
Looking out into FY18, we are still finalising our budget but it seems clear that pricing will continue to be challenging and we will respond to these adverse market conditions with strong traffic growth and lower unit costs.We expect our load factor active/price passive strategy will win market share from all higher cost EU competitor airlines, while we continue to open new markets. The good news is that our customers will continue to enjoy our unique combination of lower prices and our AGB customer experience for the benefit of our people, our passengers and our shareholders.”
Andrew Cowan (Manchester Airports Group) and David O’Brien (Ryanair) announcing a new growth deal at London Stansted Airport.
Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (12 Jan) announced a new growth deal with Manchester Airports Group (MAG) which will deliver 9 new London Stansted routes, including a daily service to Naples and a three times daily service to Copenhagen, as well as routes to Beziers, Cagliari, Clermont, Grenoble, Nice, Nimes and Strasbourg, extra flights on 13 existing routes, and over 20m customers p.a., supporting 15,000* jobs at London Stansted Airport.
Ryanair’s extended London Stansted summer 2017 schedule will deliver:
- 9 new routes to: Naples (daily), Copenhagen (3 daily), Beziers (3 wkly), Cagliari (3 wkly),
Clermont (2 wkly), Grenoble (3 wkly), Nice (daily), Nimes (4 wkly) & Strasbourg (2 wkly)
- More flights to: Bergerac (2 daily), Biarritz (11 wkly), Bordeaux (daily), Carcasonne (12 wkly)
Dinard (daily), La Rochelle (daily), Lamezia (5 wkly), Limoges (10 wkly),
Lourdes (5 wkly), Marseille (12 wkly), Perpignan (9 wkly),
Porto (16 wkly) & Toulouse (2 daily)
- 140 routes in total
- Over 20m customers p.a.
- Over 15,000* “on-site” jobs p.a.
In London, Ryanair’s Chief Commercial Officer David O’Brien said:
“We are pleased to announced a new growth deal with Manchester Airports Group at London Stansted Airport, which enables Ryanair to add 9 new London Stansted routes this summer, including a daily flight to Naples and a three times daily service to Copenhagen, increase frequency on 13 existing routes and deliver over 20m annual customers this year. Having grown our London Stansted traffic from 13.2m in 2013 to over 20m this year, this new deal will allow Ryanair to continue to expand our route network at Stansted, our largest European base.
To celebrate our new growth deal and 9 new London Stansted routes, we are releasing seats for sale across our European network from just £19.99, which are available for booking until Tuesday (17 Jan). Since these amazing low prices will be snapped up quickly, customers should log onto www.ryanair.com and avoid missing out.”
Divisional CEO at London Stansted, Andrew Cowan said:
“Today’s announcement by Ryanair is fantastic news for Stansted Airport and passengers from across the east of England and London. Ryanair is an important and valued partner for us at Stansted and we’re delighted to support the airline’s exciting expansion plans for the summer, which will help ensure Stansted remains one of the UK’s fastest growing airports and see us serve well over 25 million passengers a year within the next 12 months.
Stansted sits at the heart of one of the UK’s most innovative and rapidly developing growth corridors between London and Cambridge, so the new destinations and increase in flights on key routes will offer passengers and businesses even more choice at great value. This builds on the strength of Ryanair’s extensive network at Stansted that now serves 140 destinations from the airline’s largest base in Europe.”
ENDS
*ACI research confirms up to 750 ‘on-site’ jobs are sustained at international airports for every 1m passengers
LONDON STANSTED GROWTH
9 NEW ROUTES
| ROUTE |
FREQUENCY |
COMMENCES |
| Copenhagen |
3 x daily |
April |
| Naples |
1 x daily |
July |
| Beziers |
3 x weekly |
July |
| Cagliari |
3 x weekly |
April |
| Clermont |
2 x weekly |
July |
| Grenoble |
3 x weekly |
July |
| Nice |
1 x daily |
July |
| Nimes |
4 x weekly |
April |
| Strasbourg |
2 x weekly |
July |
EXTRA FLIGHTS
| ROUTE |
FREQUENCY |
| Bergerac |
2 x daily |
| Biarritz |
11 x weekly |
| Bordeaux |
1 x daily |
| Carcasonne |
12 x weekly |
| Dinard |
1 x daily |
| La Rochelle |
1 x daily |
| Lamezia |
5 x weekly |
| Limoges |
10 x weekly |
| Lourdes |
5 x weekly |
| Marseille |
12 x weekly |
| Perpignan |
9 x weekly |
| Porto |
16 x weekly |
| Toulouse |
2 x daily |
For further information
please contact: Robin Kiely Piaras Kelly
Ryanair DAC Edelman Ireland
Tel: +353-1-9451949 Tel: +353-1-6789333
press@ryanair.com ryanair@edelman.com
Ryanair, Europe’s No 1 airline, today (11 Jan) released its December customer service statistics, which confirm that Ryanair remains Europe’s No 1 customer service airline with:
- 84% of over 51,000 flights in December arriving on-time (down slightly due to bad weather)
- Less than 1.5 complaints per 1,000 customers
- Less than 1 bag complaint per 1,000 customers
- Over 99% of all complaints answered within 7 days
Ryanair’s Robin Kiely said:
“Ryanair carried 9 million customers in December with 84% of our flights arriving on-time, as we continued to improve our customer experience. With our expanding route network and additional enhancements under our “Always Getting Better” programme, Ryanair continues to deliver so much more than the lowest fares in Europe.”
| December |
2015 |
2016 |
| On-time flights |
86% |
84% |
| Complaints per 1,000 pax |
1.30 |
1.38 |
| Bag complaints per 1,000 pax |
0.63 |
0.66 |
| Complaints answered within 7 days |
99% |
99% |
ENDS
For further information
please contact: Robin Kiely Piaras Kelly
Ryanair DAC Edelman Ireland
Tel: +353-1-9451949 Tel: +353-1-6789 333
press@ryanair.com ryanair@edelman.com