Ryanair blames slow EU vaccine rollout for low passenger forecast

Ryanair has warned it will carry fewer passengers than expected over the next year and struggle to turn a profit because of the slow rollout of vaccinations across much of Europe. The low-cost carrier said lockdowns and travel restrictions had hit travel during the Easter period, and it expected a delayed recovery in traffic into the summer season. It now forecasts passenger numbers in the year ending March 2022 towards the lower end of a previously guided range of between 80m and 120m. The warning came as new figures revealed the depth of the crisis facing the industry, with bookings for this summer on airlines across Europe at under a fifth of normal levels. Although several airlines have trumpeted an increase in summer business, the International Air Transport Association on Wednesday said passenger bookings for travel across Europe between May and September had reached just 15 per cent of 2019 levels by March 20. Ryanair warned that some analyst forecasts predicting the carrier would return to profit over the next year were too optimistic. “While it is not possible at this time to provide meaningful full-year 2022 profit guidance, we do not share the recent optimism of certain analysts,” Ryanair said, adding that it expected to approximately break even. Analysts had forecast profit after tax of E277m, according to Bloomberg.<br/>