Ryanair hit by EU jabs failure

PROFIT WOE BLAMED ON SLOW ROLLOUT

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell expects its first quarter profits will take a $200million (£144.7m) hit due to the extreme cold snap in Texas in February. Winter Storm Uri brought the state to a standstill for a week and, according to Shell, cut its oil production by 10-20,000 barrels per day.

RYANAIR has said it can only hope to break even this year – after the EU’S slow Covid-19 vaccination rollout hampered its pandemic recovery.

The low-cost carrier said it expects to carry close to 80 million passengers in its current financial year to March 31, 2022 – down from earlier predictions of around 120 million.

Ryanair had hoped a rapid rollout of the coronavirus vaccine would see European governments restart international air travel and reopen cities and beaches to tourists again, as well as give passengers the confidence to book.

But it now believes rebuilding its sales will take longer than hoped due to vaccine setbacks and widespread Easter travel restrictions.

Ryanair said: “We do not share the recent optimism of certain analysts [on profits] as we believe that the outcome is currently close to breakeven.”

Elsewhere, over-50s money and travel specialist Saga announced a pre-tax loss of £61.2million for the 12 months to January 31 due to the pandemic.

It is the third annual loss in a row for the business.

Saga hopes to restart its cruise ship operations in the summer and is looking to rehire 500 workers that it cut last year when the pandemic hit.