RYANAIR UPS GUIDANCE FOR THE FULL YEAR - Ryanair says its profits for the six months to the end of September this year are up by 17% from the same time last year to €425m. Revenue is up 23% to €2.2 billion. 40.1m passenger journeys were made in the six month period, an increase of 10%. The average fare on Ryanair flights increased by 12% while costs rose by 13% - most of that rise is due to fuel costs. The biggest aviation event during the six months from April to September was the closure of European airspace for parts of April and May - that led to the cancellation of 9,400 Ryanair flights. The airline says it has paid 100% of the refunds due on those flights and processed over 90% of what it describes as reasonable expense claims. Ryanair had allowed €50m for those costs but says its experience of actual claims means it now expects the pay out to be around €32m.
Ryanair's deputy chief executive Michael Cawley says that today's figures show the robustness of the airline's model. He says the airline is raising its guidance for the full year to €380-400m in net profit. He says this means that Ryanair is predicting losses of €50m for the second half of the year - a much smaller loss that than recorded the same time last year. The second half of the year is the airline's off peak period.
Mr Cawley says that the airline's average fares were up 12%. He says Ryanair's average fare is €58, including all discretionary fares like baggage charges.
The Ryanair deputy CEO says that the airline is not going to make another offer for Aer Lingus, unless the Government approaches it to sell its stake in Aer Lingus. He says the company is 'puzzled and baffled' by the move by Britain's Office of Fair Trading to launch a merger investigation into Ryanair's stake in Aer Lingus. Mr Cawley said the European authorities had already ruled that it did not exert control over Aer Lingus and added that the investigation was 'four years out of time'.
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MORNING BRIEFS - Peter Sutherland, the chairman of Goldman Sachs International, has been named as the co-chairperson of an international trade experts group, set up to identify and address impediments to world trade. Mr Sutherland, who is a former Irish Attorney General and European Commissioner, was also the first director general of the World Trade Organisation. The goal of the new group is to provide advice and support for trade liberalisation is the result of talks between British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel this weekend.
*** The shareholders at AIB will today have their first opportunity to question the bank's board on the fact the state will take ninety per cent of the institution. The bank is holding an extraordinary general meeting to seek approval of its 22% holding in the US lender M&T.
*** On the currency markets this morning, the euro is trading at $1.3975 cents and 87 pence sterling.
