Ryanair Holdings reported a third-quarter loss on Monday after the Omicron variant hit passenger numbers during the peak festive booking season.
The Irish low-cost carrier reported a net loss of €96m for the three months to 31 December, compared to a loss of €321m a year earlier. It made a profit of €88m in the third quarter of 2019.
Ryanair carried 31.1m passengers during the quarter, a 286% improvement on a year previously, while the load factor rose 14 points to 84%. Revenues jumped 331% to €1.47bn.
However, the airline said that while the load factor had improved in October and November, the rapid spread of Omicron in December had “severely damaged” peak Christmas and New Year bookings and fares.
Chief executive Michael O’Leary said: “The sudden emergence of the Omicron variant [in] late November, and the media hysteria it generated in December, forced many European governments to reimpose travel restrictions in the run-up to Christmas, which significantly weakened peak close-in Christmas and New Year bookings and fares.
“As a result, December traffic slowed to just 9.5m, with a lower 81% load factor, well behind the expected target of 11m.”
Looking to the current quarter, O’Leary acknowledge that the January capacity had been cut by 33%, and conceded: “The outlook for pricing and yields for the remainder of the 2022 full year is hugely uncertain.
“While recent bookings have improved, the booking curve remains very late and close-in, so fourth-quarter traffic requires significant price stimulation at lower prices to quickly recover load factors.”
Ryanair’s full-year traffic forecast is unchanged at “just under” 100m passengers but the loss guidance remains within a wider than normal range of €250m to €450m, O’Leary noted.
“This outturn is hugely sensitive to any further positive or negative Covid news flow, and so we would caution all shareholders to expect further Covid disruptions in Europe and the rest of the world before we can finally declare the Covid crisis is behind us,” he added.
