Budget carrier Ryanair says its net annual loss is set to be within the range of €250-€450 million – worse than the previous expected range of €100-€200 million – because of the impact of Omicron.
Furthermore, Ryanair’s full-year traffic forecast will be less than 100 million passengers, rather than the previously forecast of just over 100 million.
The board announced the new guidance on Wednesday (December 22) for the full year ending March 31, 2022.
Ryanair said the new Omicron variant of Covid-19 and recent government travel restrictions across Europe have “notably weakened close-in Christmas and new year bookings”.
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It added: “This sudden downturn has also caused Ryanair this week to cut its planned January schedule capacity by 33%.”
In particular, Ryanair highlighted last weekend’s ban on UK arrivals into France and Germany, and the suspension of all EU flights to and from Morocco.
These restrictions lowered its expected December traffic from between 10-11 million to 9-9.5 million.
The January capacity cut will see traffic fall from about 10 million to between six million and seven million passengers.
It added: “In light of the current uncertainty about the Omicron variant, and intra Europe travel restrictions, no schedule cutbacks have yet been decided for February or March 2022.
“These schedules will be revisited in January as more scientific information becomes available on the Omicron variant, its impact on hospitalisations, European population and/or travel restrictions in February or March.”
The airline did add: “However, these figures are hugely sensitive to any further positive or negative Covid news flow. Ryanair hopes to have more clarity, especially on the impact of Omicron on intra Europe travel restrictions, in time for its Q3 results on January 31.”
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