Ryanair's net profit more than doubled in its April-June quarter, thanks to the timing of Easter holidays and better-than-expected last-minute fares, Europe's biggest low-cost carrier said today.
Ryanair, Europe's largest by passenger numbers, reported a net profit of €820m for the first quarter, up from €360m in the same time last year when Easter was in March.
A Ryanair poll of analysts had expected €716m.
"We cautiously expect to recover almost all of last year's 7% full-year fare decline, which should lead to reasonable net profit growth in FY26," which ends on March 31, Group CEO Michael O'Leary said.
Passenger traffic rose 5% to almost 58 million, while revenue grew 20% to €4.34 billion.
Mr O'Leary noted that passenger growth will be constrained over the full year due to "heavily delayed Boeing deliveries."
He also warned that the outlook remains "heavily exposed" to risks including tariff wars, macroeconomic shocks and conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.
The airline also said today it was not seeing a trend of later-than-normal bookings reported by some rivals.
"Across the piece, bookings are good," its chief financial Officer Neil Sorahan said, adding that consumer confidence was very strong.
In the July-September quarter, when European airlines make most of their profit, Ryanair expects to recover almost all of the 7% fare decline seen last year, when it was hit by weak consumer sentiment and a dispute with some online travel agents.
Ryanair's profit for the year depends heavily on the strength of close-in bookings in August and September, but Michael O'Leary said the rebound in fares should lead to "reasonable net profit growth" for the year to March 31.
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As Boeing's largest customer in Europe, Ryanair is particularly exposed to the possible imposition of tariffs on commercial aircraft, but said it was hopeful that an exemption for commercial aircraft could be agreed by the US and European Union.
Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary said the airline and aircraft manufacturer Boeing have not yet paid any US tariffs on planes that have been delivered.
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In the first quarter of this year Ryanair has taken delivery of five aircraft from Boeing, according to Mr O’Leary.
The Ryanair boss said no tariffs were applied to those aircraft.
"There is a risk of tariffs being introduced by the Europeans or the Americans in some tit-for-tat in August, September, October which might affect some of our deliveries, but Boeing have to pay those tariffs," he said.
"But we’ll be working with Boeing to ensure there are no tariffs applied to commercial aircraft, which would be bad not just for Boeing’s exports to Europe but also Airbus’ export of aircraft to north America and the Irish aircraft leasing industry," he stated.
However, Mr O’Leary said he is "cautiously optimistic" that commercial aircraft will escape tariff action.
"There's increasing optimism though in Washington that commercial aircraft will be exempt from any tariffs if Trump ever gets around to imposing the tariffs. So, I’d be reasonably or cautiously optimistic that tariffs won’t be an issue for our new aircraft deliveries or Airbus deliveries either," he stated.
Ryanair shares moved higher in Dublin trade today.
