Ryanair sees profits stall

RYANAIR’S annual profits dropped to a four-year low of £832m as it was hit by a fall in fare takings and rising fuel costs.

The budget airline said it flew 142m customers across Europe in the year to March 31, up 9pc on the previous year. However, profits dropped by a third.

Chief executive Michael O’Leary put this down to a later Easter holiday, which fell outside the financial year, meaning that the lucrative holiday period was not included in the results.

Fierce competition on short-haul routes also played a part in pushing the average fare down by 6pc to £32. And Ryanair was battling a 23pc rise in fuel costs to £2.1bn after oil prices rose. It warned that this year the fuel bill will rise by another 19pc, or £403m, to £2.5bn.

Profits fell at the firm’s Austrian airline Laudamotion, and it had to spend 28pc more on staff salaries – costing it £829m – after a series of deals with unions to avert strikes. O’Leary said the price of fares will keep falling in Germany and the UK.

A number of other companies in the sector, such as Tui and Easyjet, have said that worries about a hard Brexit occurring in March put travellers off booking summer holidays abroad earlier in the year.

Ryanair said that revenues rose 6pc to £6.6bn, as it made more money from add-ons such as reserved seating and priority boarding.