Ryanair flies through crisis

RYANAIR’S compensation bill for the recent cancellation crisis equates to just three and a half days of profit.

The budget airline revealed business was booming despite wrecking the travel plans of almost 750,000 passengers.

Profits jumped 11pc to £1.14bn in the six months to the end of September, and it flew 72.1m passengers – also 11pc higher.

Passenger numbers were boosted by its decision to cut fares by 5pc on average in the first half of its financial year.

But the airline confirmed its results for the second half of the year would also be affected by a £22m bill for providing £40 travel vouchers for passengers whose flights were cancelled. Passengers with return flights received £80 travel vouchers.

It added it would also have to pay £40m for ‘pilot costs’. This includes a pay rise – if accepted by pilots – as well as the cost of recruiting and training more.

The Dublin firm said full-year traffic was expected to decelerate from 131m customers to 129m after it grounded 25 aircraft. Pugnacious boss Michael O’Leary attacked other airlines and claimed that following a pay rise this month a Ryanair captain at Stansted will earn £135,000, 22pc more than at Jet2 and 20pc more than at Norwegian.

He claimed the ‘rostering failure’ that caused the cancellation of more than 20,000 flights had led to a ‘campaign of misinformation by competitor airline unions’. But despite the fiasco, Ryanair remains on track to land record annual profits.

It stuck by its full-year profit guidance of £1.23bn to £1.28bn, but warned that passenger numbers would slow in the wake of the pilot rostering debacle.