Ryanair expects air fares to increase this year following a dip in 2024 as delayed aircraft deliveries hinders expansion of its fleet.
Fares fell 7 per cent on average during its last financial year, leaving the airline’s profits trailing 2023’s by 16 per cent at €1.61 billion, Ryanair said on Monday.
Holdups in the delivery of the last of the 210 Boeing 737 game-changer jets that it has ordered will limit the growth of its fleet, and thus the number of extra seats it will have available this summer.
Consequently, chief executive Michael O’Leary expects the airline to recover most of 2024’s 7 per cent slide in fares in the coming months.
“At the moment, we think it is about 5 or 6 per cent that we will get back,” he said after the airline published financial results on Monday.
Mr O’Leary cautioned that a lot would depend on the final “close-in” 10 per cent of bookings, for which passengers pay higher fares, boosting the airline’s earnings.
The opening weeks of Ryanair’s current financial year – the last one ended on March 31st – have been good, with prices up 14 to 15 per cent on the same time in 2024.
However, Easter fell in late April this year, while the holiday weekend began in the final days of March in 2024, so part of the benefit was counted in the previous financial year.
Ryanair carried a record 200.2 million passengers in the 12 months ended March 31st, a 9 per cent increase on the previous financial year.
Mr O’Leary calculated that the carrier would fly six million more people in the current year, an increase of 3 per cent, against the 6 to 7 per cent it would expect normally.
However, he expects normal momentum to resume from next year, as Ryanair will receive 29 new aircraft from Boeing in the autumn.
‘I’ve entrepreneurial spirit in my veins’ – Apprentice star Jordan Dargan
That will be the last of an order of 210 game-changer aircraft, it already has 181 in its fleet of 618 Boeing 737s.
The airline hopes to begin taking delivery of the first of a different model, the 737 Max 10, on time for summer 2027. Ryanair has firm orders for 150 of these jets.
“We will be the only airline in Europe adding any meaningful capacity in ’27, ’28 and ’29,” Mr O’Leary predicted.
Many European carriers have reined in growth since the pandemic‘s end in 2021. Meanwhile, leading manufacturers Boeing and Airbus have struggled to keep up with orders for new planes since 2019, limiting supply even as demand for flying continues to grow.
Mr O’Leary repeated calls for reforms of Europe’s air traffic control systems, which he warned would continue to cause delays this summer.
Closer to home, he argued that it was time for the Government “with its 20-seat majority” to pass legislation lifting the 32 million a year limit on passengers at Dublin Airport.
Legal action by Ryanair, Aer Lingus and others has suspended the limit’s implementation, but the condition, imposed by planners in 2007, remains in place.
The Coalition pledged to lift it in its programme for Government. Mr O’Leary said that it was now “time for action”.
