By Conor Humphries
Dublin (Reuters) -ryanair reported strong demand on Europe on Monday and planned that the prices would rebound to recover a large part of the decline that broke the profits last year while consumers struggled with high interest rates.
“The demand is robust throughout the network,” the financial director Neil Sorahan told Reuters in an interview. “We operate in 37 different countries. We see a high demand for summer everywhere.”
The low -cost Irish carrier, the largest airline in Europe by number of passengers, said a 16% drop in annual profit for the 12 -month period ended on March 31, because a softer demand and a dispute with online travel agents reduced prices by 7%.
“We are delighted that we recover most of these 7%, but not everything. So I think it’s a fairly good turnaround,” said Sorahan.
The increase in average tariffs of almost 7% compares to a forecast of 4 to 6% made by the director general Michael O’Leary in March.
Ryanair shares increased 3.4% to 23.17 euros to 0733 GMT. They dropped up to 13.41 euros last July after the airline said a 15% drop in average tariffs in the first quarter.
O’Leary could comply with a bonus of almost 100 million euros if the share price remains greater than 21 euros for 28 days. It has been negotiated above this level since May 2.
The airline said that the prices for the three months ending in June should increase with a “percentage of adolescents from high at high” in annual shift, largely motivated by Easter.
Summer reservations take place at around 1% before the same period last year, said O’Leary.
The after -tax profit for the Ryanair exercise came from 1.61 billion euros ($ 1.8 billion), in accordance with a business survey of analysts.
The airline expects a “modest unit costs” during the current financial year, because new aircraft, fuel coverage and cost control helps compensate for the increase in air traffic control costs and higher environmental taxes.
Citi analysts said in a note that investors were likely to react positively to the forecasts of only modest costs and estimation of the recovery of prices.
Deliveries on the right track
Ryanair made a record of 200 million passengers in the 12 months after the reduction of a previous target of 205 million due to the delays in Boeing. It plans to steal 206 million passengers during the year on March 31, 2026.
“We are in good shape on deliveries,” said Sorahan.
Ryanair would expect Boeing to honor the agreed prices on current planes orders even if the European Union imposes reciprocal prices and the airline would reserve the right to cancel otherwise, said Sorahan, echoing the previous comments of O’Leary.
