Ryanair Expects Passenger Numbers to Halve

Ryanair say they expect passenger numbers to halve in the current financial year to below 80 million. The airline originally targeted 154 million passengers to fly with them for this year. 

Chief executive Michael O’Leary insists the low-cost carrier will still seek to increase their flight schedule in July, despite UK government plans to introduce a two-week quarantine for arrivals.

O’Leary attacked the quarantine policy denouncing it as “idiotic” and “un-implementable” and continued to say that he predicts it will be gone by June.

Ryanair have also announced profits of just over €1bn for the financial year to the end of March, an increase of 13% on the previous year. They remain unable to provide profit forecasts for the coming months however with air travel demand likely to remain turbulent for the foreseeable future. A loss of €200m in the April-to-June period is likely to be reported, according to Ryanair. 

The company have laid out plans to cut 3,000 jobs in response to the coronavirus crisis and predict a “difficult” year ahead. However, they believe they are well prepared to weather the storm with cash reserves of more than €4bn which will allow them to avoid asking for state aid.