A better than expected festive period with the absence of travel restrictions has enabled Ryanair to raise its profit forecasts.
Europe’s largest budget carrier reported “stronger than expected” peak Christmas and new year traffic and fares.
This had been stimulated by “strong pent-up travel demand over the holiday season for the first time in three years, with no adverse impact from Covid or the war in Ukraine.”
Ryanair Holdings said the performance for the three months to. December 31 would raise post-tax profits for the period to almost €200 million.
However, the current winter quarter is expected to be loss-making due to a “softening” in UK and Irish outbound passengers and pricing.
Despite this, the carrier’s guidance for 168 million passenger carryings for the financial year remain unchanged.
As a result, annual profits after tax are expected to be raised from a current range of €1 billion-€1.2 billion to a new range of €1.32 billion- €1.42 billion.
The guidance remains “heavily dependent upon avoiding adverse events” in the current quarter, such as Covid or the war in Ukraine, the carrier added.
Ryanair Group’s next market update is due on January 30 when third quarter results are released.