Ryanair ‘cautiously’ eyes breakeven this year after E815m loss

Ryanair ‘cautiously believes’ it can be close to breakeven for the financial year ahead after posting a record loss of E815m for the pandemic-hit year to March 2021. Revenues collapsed to just E1.64b from E8.49b in the previous year, in line with an 81% fall in passenger numbers to 27.5m for its 2021 financial year amid lockdowns and travel restrictions across Europe. Ryanair sees travel disruption continuing in the first quarter of the new financial year and expects to carry only between five and six million passengers for the three months ending 30 June 2021. ”With a very close-in booking curve, visibility for the remainder of FY22 is close to zero, although bookings have jumped significantly from a very low base since week one of April. It is therefore impossible to provide meaningful FY22 guidance at this time,” it says. However it reiterates recent guidance that it expects full-year traffic levels to be at the lower end of its 80m to 120m passenger guided range. “We also (cautiously) believe that the likely outcome for FY22 is currently close to breakeven – assuming that a successful rollout of vaccines this summer allows a timely easing of European government travel restrictions on intra-European traffic in time for the peak travel period of July/August/September,” it says.<br/>