Europe’s largest budget airline Ryanair could be in a good position going forward, as passengers trade down to low-cost services, according to chief executive officer Michael O’Leary.
Although the airline has yet to provide concrete profit guidance for the financial year ending in March 2023, Ryanair will likely beat pre-pandemic levels of passengers this year as travellers gravitate towards budget services.
But while the Ryanair boss is hopeful, he told Reuters that he’s “not certain of returning to pre-Covid profit levels of over €1bn (£860mln)”.
O’Leary is not so optimistic about Europe’s wider short-haul aviation market though, given the plethora of grim macro pressures from rising fuel and staffing costs to recession fears and the Ukraine invasion.
"I think that the overall market will not in 2023, 2024, return to pre-COVID traffic levels,” he told a news conference on Tuesday, before stating that Ryanair “will grow stronger in a recession as we have in every other recession heretofore”.
Fares are likely to increase by 3-4% this year and another 3-5% the year after according to O’Leary.
O’Leary signalled an end to €10 flights earlier this month, stating that average fares on the Irish budget carrier would rise to roughly €50 (£42.90) over the next five years.
Regardless, Ryanair did just add more than one million low-fare seats to its winter schedule just as British Airways was raking up the cancellations.
Andrew Tate ???? British Airways flights
Getting cancelled
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) August 23, 2022
Never one to pull a cheap jab, Ryanair proceeded to compare BA to Andrew Tate, the former Big Brother contestant and kickboxer recently “cancelled” on allegations of homophobia and racism.