Ryanair hikes full year profit forecast after strong Christmas season

Ryanair hiked its forecast for after-tax profit by up to 325m euros on Wednesday, citing recent pent-up travel demand while warning that COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine could still affect the outcome. Europe's largest airline by passenger numbers saw profit for the year to end-March at between E1.325b and E1.425b, up from a previous range of 1b to 1.2b due to stronger than expected holiday traffic and fares. The forecasts mean Ryanair is set to easily pass the E1b annual profit it made before two years of COVID-19 losses and come close to the record E1.45b reached in the year to March 31, 2018. The low cost carrier said it expects to report a stronger than expected after-tax profit of close to E200m in the three months to Dec. 31 after strong pent-up travel demand over the Christmas and New Year holidays. That would represent a record quarterly profit for that period for the airline, almost double the E106m generated in the three months to the end of December 2017. It said it still expects the period from January to March to be loss making due to Easter holidays falling in April and a recent softening in traffic and pricing for flights out of the United Kingdom and between Irish and provincial UK airports.<br/>