Ryanair Holdings PLC (LSE:RYA) warned that it expects to make a larger loss for the past financial year as traffic did not recover as much as it had predicted.
The Irish budget airline said it now expects a net loss of €350mln-€400mln for the year to end-March, compared to the €250mln-€450mln guidance it gave in December and €100mln-€200mln forecast before that.
Having expected full-year passenger traffic to recover from the 27.5mln in the first year of the pandemic to 100mln in the financial year just ended, the Dublin-based company said the final figure came in at just over 97mln. Pre-Covid traffic was 149mln.
Amid soaring fuel prices, management have increased fuel hedging for the new financial year to 80% cover, with almost two-thirds in ‘swaps’ fixed at US$630 and 15% capped at US$775 per metric tonne.
In January, it had fixed 80% of its fuel for the first half of the year and 70% for the second.
It added that it has now has 10% of the first half of 2024’s fuel requirements hedged at US$760 via jet swaps.
Net debt at the year-end was €1.5bn, compared to €2.3bn a year ago.