Ryanair Group increased passenger numbers and average fares to above pre-Covid levels during the summer 2022 season thanks to strong demand.
The Ireland-based airline group carried 95.1 million in the six months to 30 September 2022, which was up from 85.7 million passengers in the same period in 2019.
This increase in traffic helped Ryanair to reach revenue of €6.6 billion for the half-year, compared with €2.15 billion last year and €5.4 billion in 2019.
The airline said it had benefited from “robust” summer fares which were 14 per cent higher in the July-September period than before the pandemic. Ancillary revenue also rose to an average of €23 per passenger.
Ryanair made a net profit of €1.37 billion during the six months after making a loss of €48 million a year ago when operations were still severely affected by Covid-19 travel restrictions.
Despite the positive results, Ryanair said recovery over the next six months “remains fragile and could yet be impacted by new Covid variants or adverse geopolitical events such as Ukraine”.
But the airline stressed that it expected to “thrive” during any recession in Europe in the coming months and years, as it has done in previous downturns.
Ryanair Group CEO Michael O’Leary said: “Our very strong post-Covid recovery shows that price will continue to drive market share gains as we add low cost, more fuel efficient, aircraft to our fleet over the next four years.
“As Europe recovers from the two-year Covid pandemic there has been a considerable contraction of short haul capacity, much of which will not return in the medium term. Most of our EU competitors have cut capacity by up to 20 per cent this winter while Ryanair will offer 10 per cent more seats than pre-Covid.”
The airline’s latest estimates show that it expects to carry 168 million passengers in the current year, running to the end of March 2023, (up by 13 per cent on the last pre-Covid year) followed by 185 million in 2024, 205 million in 2025 and 225 million in 2026.