Budget airline Ryanair more than doubled its full-year loss forecast on Wednesday and cut its traffic estimates, pinning the blame on restrictions imposed in response to the Omicron variant.
The company now expects to report a full-year net loss of between €250m and €450m, up from previous guidance of between €100m and €200m, “as the Omicron Covid variant and recent Government travel restrictions across Europe have notably weakened close-in Christmas & New Year bookings”.
As a result of travel restrictions, in particular last weekend’s ban on UK arrivals into France and Germany, and the suspension of all EU flights to/from Morocco, the airline cut its December traffic estimate from between 10m and 11m to between 9m and 9.5m. It also slashed its planned January schedule capacity by 33% to between 6m and 7m. As a result, it now expects full-year traffic of just under 100m, versus previous guidance of just over 100m.
“In light of the current uncertainty about the Omicron variant, and intra Europe travel restrictions, no schedule cutbacks have yet been decided for February or March 2022,” Ryanair said.
“These schedules will be revisited in January as more scientific information becomes available on the Omicron variant, its impact on hospitalisations, European population and/or travel restrictions in February or March.”
