DUBLIN: The Irish airline Ryanair’s earnings after taxation increased by 37 percent to 1.09 billion euros ($1.2 billion) in the six months to the end of September, as compared with 795 million euros a year earlier.
The Dublin-based carrier added in a results statement that it was on target to hit the upper end of its annual earnings forecast, aided also by ongoing improvements to customer services.
Passenger numbers swelled 13 percent to 58.1 million people and revenues grew 14 percent to 4.04 billion euros.
“We have enjoyed a bumper summer due to a very rare confluence of favourable events including stronger sterling, adverse weather in northern Europe, reasonably flat industry capacity and further savings on our unhedged fuel,” said chief executive Michael O’Leary.
He added that the airline’s “Always Getting Better” customer services programme was “driving stronger forward bookings, higher load factors” and “accelerating traffic growth.”
Ryanair predicted full-year net profit would be towards the upper end of its forecast range of between 1.175-1.225 billion euros. Aviation analyst Stephen Furlong with Dublin-based stockbrokers Davy
said it was “an exceptional performance”. Keith Bowman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers noted that “Ryanair’s ascent in comparison to former flag carrying competitors shows little sign of slowing”.
He added: “New bases and routes continue to be undertaken, the group’s stranglehold on costs is now the template rivals aspire to, while the group remains in a key position to lead future industry consolidation.”
O’Leary said it was now the airline’s target to carry 180 million passengers per year by 2024, from an earlier goal of 160 million. The carrier’s chief marketing manager Kenny Jacobs said Ryanair was setting this target on the back of “a very strong two years.”
“We’ve got 330 aircraft on order in the next nine years so that gives us the platform that we need to get to a business with 180 million customers by 2024, which would give us about 24 percent of the market,” he told Irish radio RTE.
O’Leary said lower fuel costs would save the airline 430 million euros next year, while it had already hedged 95 percent of its fuel for next year.
The airline confirmed it will return a special dividend of 398 million euros to shareholders this month after the sale of its stake in Irish competitor Aer Lingus to the International Airlines Group earlier this year.
The company moved to overhaul its approach to customer service in 2014 in the wake of years of negative publicity.
Ryanair said it would carry a record 105 million passengers this year, raising its earlier forecast of 104 million people issued only last month.
