Ryanair has said it expects to see a smaller increase in air fares in the three months from now to the end of September, which mark the second quarter of the airline group’s financial year.
In its newly-published first quarter results – covering the three months to the end of June – Ryanair said it expects to recover almost all of the 7% fare decline it saw last year across its current financial year.
However, it said second quarter fare increases will be lower than the 21% average price rise seen in the first quarter.
It said travel demand for the current quarter (up to the end of September) is strong. While it is too early to provide any meaningful full-year profit guidance, Ryanair said a recovery of most of last year’s fare decline should lead to “reasonable net profit growth” for the financial year up to the end of next March.
Ryanair’s latest results show a whopping 128% year-on-year jump in after-tax profit to €820m, a 20% jump in revenue to €4.34bn and a 4% increase in passenger numbers to 57.9 million people.
“The final FY26 [financial year 2026] outcome remains heavily exposed to adverse external developments, incl. the risk of tariff wars, macro-economic shocks, conflict escalation in the Middle East and Ukraine and European ATC strikes, mismanagement & short staffing,” said Ryanair Group Chief Executive, Michael O’Leary.
“This summer we will operate over 2,600 routes (incl. 160 new routes) and we’re seeing strong S.25 travel demand across our network. Our Group airlines capacity constrained growth is being allocated to those regions and airports who are cutting aviation taxes and incentivising traffic growth, and we expect this trend to continue,” Mr O’Leary added.
“We believe European short-haul capacity will remain constrained for the next 5 years to 2030 as the big 2 OEMs remain well behind on aircraft deliveries, many of Europe’s Airbus operators work through Pratt & Whitney engine repairs and EU airline consolidation continues (SAS, TAP, Air Europa & others). These industry capacity constraints, combined with our widening unit cost (and fuel hedge) advantage, strong balance sheet, low-cost aircraft orders and industry leading ops resilience will, we believe, facilitate Ryanair’s controlled profitable growth to 300m passengers p.a. by FY34,” he said.
