Ryanair’s decision to limit job cuts during the pandemic has been vindicated as rivals struggle to recruit lost staff.
The message came from group chief executive Michael O’Leary as Europe’s largest no-frills carrier reported a profit of €170 million in the three months to June 30 against a loss of €273 million in the same period last year.
However, the figure was below “well below” the €243 million profit achieved in the same three months in pre-Covid 2019.
While passenger numbers recovered strongly from 8.1 million a year ago to 45.5 million in the quarter, Easter bookings and fares were “badly damaged” by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February.
O’Leary said: “Our decision to work with our unions and agree pay cuts to minimise job losses and keep crews current throughout the two years of Covid was vindicated in recent months, as many European airlines, airports, and handling companies struggled to restore jobs that were cut during the pandemic.
“Ryanair seems unusual among the major EU airlines in summer ’22, insofar as we are fully crewed, despite operating at 115% of our pre-Covid capacity.”
He added: “Our business, our schedules and our customers are being disrupted by unprecedented ATC [air traffic control] and airport handling delays, but we remain confident that we can operate almost 100% of our scheduled flights, while minimising delays and disruptions.”
Looking forward, O’Leary said: “While we remain hopeful that the high rate of vaccinations in Europe will allow the airline and tourism industry to fully recover and finally put Covid behind us, we cannot ignore the risk of new Covid variants in autumn 2022.
“Our experience with Omicron last November and the Ukraine invasion in February shows how fragile the air travel market remains, and the strength of any recovery will be hugely dependent upon there being no adverse or unexpected developments.”
The carrier is seeing higher levels of last-minute bookings amid “clear signs” of pent-up demand.
But Ryanair has limited visibility into the second half of the peak summer quarter and “almost zero visibility” into the winter period which is typically loss making.
Nonetheless, the airline aims to raise annual carryings by 11% over pre-Covid levels to 165 million passengers in the 12 months to March 2023.
But it it is too soon to provide meaningful guidance to the full year financial performance amid volatile oil prices, potential Covid, geopolitical and supply chain risks, O’Leary admitted.
“We hope to be in a better position to do so at the half year results in November but, as our experience with Omicron and Ukraine shows any guidance is subject to a very rapid change from unexpected events which are well beyond our control during what remains a very strong but still fragile recovery,” he said.
Ryanair aims to create more than 6,000 jobs for skilled aviation workers across Europe by 2026.
An updated sustainability report highlights ambitious environmental and social targets over the coming years and maps out Ryanair’s path to net carbon zero by 2050.