Ryanair buys €18m shares this week in €750m plan

RYANAIR has rapidly engaged its new €750m share buyback programme, having acquired almost €18m worth of its own shares under the scheme since Tuesday.

It only unveiled the new buyback programme last Monday, when it released third-quarter results. The company said yesterday that its brokers bought 595,503 shares in the airline on Thursday at an average price of €15.93 each, for a total of about €9.48m.

On Wednesday, it bought back 275,166 shares at an average price of €15.98 each.

Tuesday saw its brokers buy back 255,811 shares at an average price of €15.93.

Shares were trading about 1pc lower yesterday morning at €15.70, giving it a market capitalisation of €18.6bn.

Meanwhile, Spanish pilot union Sepla has signed a two-year collective bargaining agreement with Scandinavian airline Norwegian.

Norwegian’s chief human resources officer, Helga Bollmann Leknes, said the agreement was “very important” for the airline as it laid the foundation for a “continued fruitful relationship” between staff and management. Norwegian has also just agreed a collective bargaining deal in Italy.

Earlier this week, Sepla said it was “naïve” to believe that Ryanair management “really wanted to change” what the union has described as “toxic labour relations”.

In a letter to pilots, the union’s Ryanair company council said that it’s following through with a threat made last month to initiate legal action against the airline in relation to its employment practices.

Ryanair dismissed the Sepla move, citing a court ruling that the Spanish courts have no jurisdiction over Ryanair pilots and cabin crew contracts.