Ryanair Q3 Profits Soar to €149 Million

Ryanair Holdings plc has reported a Q3 profit after tax of €149m, compared to the prior-year Q3 PAT of €15m. Traffic grew 9% to 45m passengers at marginally higher fares due to stronger close-in Christmas/New Year bookings. Cumulative 9-month profits of €1.94bn fell 12% below PY 9-month PAT on 8% lower air fares.

Other Q3 highlights include:

• Traffic grew 9% to 45m, despite Boeing delivery delays.
• Revenue per pax rose 1% (Q3 average fare & ancillary revenue per pax up 1%).
• 172 x B737-8200 MAX in 609 fleet at 31st December.
• Approved OTA partnerships are almost fully integrated.
• Over 50% of €800m buy-back completed on 31st December.
• €0.223 per share interim dividends payable 26^th February.

Commenting on the results, Ryanair Group CEO Michael O’Leary, said: “Total Q3 revenue rose 10% to €2.96bn. Scheduled revenue increased 10% to €1.92bn as traffic (despite repeated Boeing delivery delays) grew 9% at marginally higher Q3 ave. fares (+1%), helped by strong close-in Christmas/New Year bookings and easier PY comps (with last year’s Q3 holiday season impacted by the OTA boycott). Ancillary revenues delivered another solid performance, rising 10% to €1.04bn in Q3. Operating costs rose 8% to €2.93bn as fuel hedge savings offset higher staff and other costs due (in part) to Boeing delivery delays. Q4 FY25 fuel is c.85% hedged at $80bbl and FY26 fuel is over 75% hedged at $77bbl, de-risking the Group from fuel price volatility.”

Looking at the current fleet and future growth he said: “Ryanair had 172 B737-8200 “Gamechangers” in its 609 aircraft fleet at 31 Dec.  We continue to work with Boeing to accelerate aircraft deliveries and visited Seattle earlier this month.  While B737 production is recovering from Boeing’s strike in late 2024, we no longer expect Boeing to deliver sufficient aircraft ahead of S.25 to facilitate FY26 traffic growth to 210m passengers.  Boeing delays have forced us to revise our FY26 traffic target to 206m (just 3% growth).  We’re hopeful that the remaining 29 Gamechangers in our 210 orderbook will deliver before March 2026, enabling us to recover this delayed traffic growth in S.26 instead of S.25.  Boeing expects the MAX-10 to be certified in late 2025 which, we hope, will facilitate a timely delivery of our first 15 MAX-10s in Spring 2027 (as contracted). Over the coming year, we’ll reallocate this scarce capacity growth to those regions and airports (in Poland, Sweden and Italy) who are investing in growth by cutting/abolishing aviation taxes, and incentivising traffic growth. Almost all of our S.25 capacity is now on sale, incl. 164 new routes (total 2,600 routes), and we encourage early booking on www.ryanair.com to avoid disappointment. We expect European short-haul capacity to remain constrained in 2025 as many of Europe’s Airbus operators continue to work through Pratt & Whitney engine repairs, both major OEMs struggle with delivery backlogs, and EU airline consolidation continues, incl. Lufthansa’s takeover of ITA, Air France-KLM’s stake in SAS and the upcoming sale of TAP. These capacity constraints, combined with our significant cost advantage, strong balance sheet, low-cost aircraft orders and industry leading operational resilience will, we believe, facilitate Ryanair’s low-fare profitable growth to 300m passengers over the next decade.”

Looking at the Outlook for the rest of the year, he went on to say: “We expect FY25 traffic to reach almost 200m (+9%) guests, subject to no further adverse news on Boeing delivery delays. Unit costs are performing in line with expectations, as the cost gap between Ryanair and EU competitor airlines widens, and should be broadly flat for the full-year. Our fuel hedge savings, strong interest income and some modest aircraft delay compensation are largely offsetting ex-fuel cost inflation (particularly crew pay & productivity increases, higher handling & ATC fees and the cost inefficiency of repeated B737 delivery delays). While Q3 fares were marginally stronger than the prior year (which was impacted by the OTA boycott in late Nov. 2023), this year’s Q4 will not benefit from last year’s early Easter, which makes our Q4 PY comp. very challenging. At this stage, we are cautiously guiding FY25 PAT in a range of €1.55bn to €1.61bn. The final FY25 PAT outcome remains subject to avoiding adverse external developments between now and the end of Mar., incl. the risk of conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, further Boeing delivery delays and ATC mismanagement/short-staffing here in Europe.”