Ryanair swings to 2023 profit, as revenue beats forecasts on 74% traffic jump

The low cost carrier said its guidance was nonetheless dependent on the avoidance of adverse events such as the war in Ukraine or further Boeing delivery delays.

Ryanair said that although it expects traffic to grow to around 185 million in fiscal 2024, recent delivery delays from Boeing may push some of this into its lower-yielding second half, slightly reducing this target.

For the year ended March 31 net profit was 1.31 billion euros ($1.42 billion) compared with a net loss of EUR240.8 million for fiscal 2022 and net profit consensus of EUR1.35 billion, taken from FactSet and based on 17 analysts’ forecasts.

Revenue was EUR10.78 billion, compared with EUR4.80 billion the year before. Ancillary revenue rose to EUR3.84 billion from EUR2.15 billion the year before. Fares for the period were up 10% on prepandemic levels, the company said.

Pre-exceptional profit after tax–its preferred metric–was EUR1.43 billion, compared with a loss of EUR355 million last year. .

The company said its load factor–a measure of how full a plane is–stood at 93%, compared with 82% the year before, and that traffic reached 168.6 million passengers, a 13% increase on the levels seen in fiscal 2020.

Although the fuel bill for the year will increase by more than EUR1 billion on higher fuel prices, the company said it was optimistic that revenue for the year will grow sufficiently to cover this and deliver a modest on-year profit increase.

“While we continue to enjoy a significant cost advantage over competitor airlines, we expect to record a modest increase in unit costs, excluding fuel, as annualized crew pay restoration, higher crew ratios this summer and increased, enroute charges will not be fully offset by Boeing 737 Gamechanger deliveries in the first half,” the company said.

Write to Anthony O. Goriainoff at anthony.orunagoriainoff@dowjones.com