Ryanair shares up on financial results

The share price of budget airline Ryanair is up this morning (May 19th) after the company revealed its latest financial results.

In a statement, Ryanair announced full year net profit of €523 million (£426.4 million), which came in slightly ahead of previous guidance.

Traffic over the course of the 12-month period was three per cent higher, with 81.7 million passengers travelling with Ryanair last year. However, the firm stated that its revenue per passenger was flat for the year, with the company noting that strong ancillary revenue growth helped to offset a four per cent drop in average fares.

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary said the last year has been particularly good for customer experience at the airline, which has launched a new 'fare finder' feature on its website.

Eight bases – Athens, Thessaloniki, Brussels, Lisbon, Rome (FCO), Catania, Lamezia and Palermo – have been added by the company in the last 12 months, with 121 new routes listed as well

Actions taken

Mr O'Leary said: "While disappointing that profits fell eight per cent to €523 million due mainly to a four per cent decline in fares, weaker sterling, and higher fuel costs, we reacted quickly to this weaker environment last September by lowering fares and improving our customer experience which caused H2 traffic to grow four per cent as load factors rose one per cent.

"Ancillary revenues grew 17 per cent, much faster than traffic growth, and now accounts for 25 per cent of total revenues."

Forward bookings for the coming summer were revealed by Ryanair to be "significantly" ahead of last year, allowing the budget airline to continue to deliver two per cent higher load factors.

Investors have responded positively to the news released in the airline's latest financial results and the share price of the company is up this morning. By 08:25 BST, stocks in the firm were up by more than six per cent on the start of the day on the London Stock Exchange.

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