Ryanair has seen a surge in Easter holiday bookings to European destinations as travelers avoid the Middle East due to the escalating regional conflict, the airline's CEO said today, adding he did not expect a big longer-term impact.
The war between the US, Israel and Iran disrupted flights worldwide, closed key Middle Eastern hubs and sent oil prices surging, with analysts warning of weeks of disruption.
"We've seen certainly there's a big collapse in bookings to the Middle East and a big surge in bookings on short haul airlines within Europe, particularly I think the focus is on the Easter holidays," Michael O'Leary told a news conference today.
"But I don't think it has any fundamental change or impact on longer term booking trends into May, June, July," he added.
Mr O'Leary said Ryanair's priority during the current disruption was to repatriate customers from Jordan, and that it did not have much spare capacity to help with other repatriations.
"Certainly wherever we can help with repatriations, we would try to be helpful," he told a news conference in Warsaw.
"But our focus is our customers who are currently stranded in Jordan," he added.
Oil prices have surged due to the widening Middle East conflict, up roughly 30% so far this year, potentially driving up the cost of jet fuel and hurting airlines' profits.
However, CEO O'Leary said this would not affect Ryanair as it was well hedged against rising oil prices.
"We're hedged for the next 12 months out to March 2027 at about $67 per barrel. So it won't affect our costs and it won't affect our low fares," he added.
Ryanair also said today it plans to double its activity at Warsaw's Modlin airport, with seven planes based there.
Earlier today, Ryanair reported a 6% increase in passenger numbers for February.
The airline said it carried a total of 13.3 million passengers last month, up from 12.6 million the same time last year.
Its load factor - how many seats it fills on each flight - was steady at 92%.
Ryanair said it operated over 75,000 flights in February.
Shares in the airline were lower in Dublin trade today.
