Ryanair posted on Monday, November 7, its largest ever after tax profit for the first half of the financial year. The airline expected traffic to return to pre-COVID level by the end of its financial year in March with an after-tax profit of between 1 billion and 1.2 billion euros.
The traffic and profitability of that recovery continue to be “very strong,” allowing the Irish airline, the largest by passenger numbers in Europe, to remain solid at least for the next three years, Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary said.
The airline earned 1.371 billion euros in the six months to the end of September, just short of the forecast of analysts for the company of 1.385 billion.
“Concerns about the impact of recession and rising consumer price inflation on Ryanair’s business model have been greatly exaggerated in recent months,” O’Leary said in a statement.
“We expect these strong fundamentals will continue to underpin robust traffic and average fare growth for the next 18-months at least,” he said.
Neil Sorahan, the airline’s chief financial officer, said that he hoped the number of passengers would rise to 185 million next year.
