Ryanair has today warned of weakness in ticket prices during its peak summer months, but said the threat of fuel shortages was receding as suppliers adapted to the prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
The comments came as Europe's largest airline by passenger numbers reported a record profit for the fiscal year that ended in March, slightly ahead of analyst expectations.
Ryanair said last week it did not expect a disruption to jet fuel supplies in Europe this summer but that its profit might come under "a bit of pressure" if oil prices remained high for longer.
The airline is now "increasingly confident" there will be no disruption to jet fuel supplies even after the summer as refiners increase their volumes and seek alternatives to Gulf oil supplies, Ryanair's chief financial officer Neil Sorahan said in an interview.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland he said there'll be no shortage of jet fuel into the summer and beyond.
"Ryanair's strategy has always been that we're a load active yield passive, which means we priced to fill the aircraft," he said.
Mr Sorahan also advised people to start booking quickly because he thinks fares will go up as summer goes on.
"People are booking closer in which means we're simulating a little bit further out, but the close-in fares are higher and I think if you don't get caught out people should be booking now," he said.
The airline's suppliers this week said there would be no disruption between now and mid-July, group chief executive Michael O'Leary said in a video presentation.
But earlier forecasts of a low-single-digit-percentage increase in fares during the peak summer months have evaporated.
Pricing fell by a mid-single-digit percentage in the April-June quarter and was "trending broadly flat" for the three months from July to September, Ryanair said.
While the airline has hedged 80% of its jet-fuel requirements for the year to March at $67 per barrel, unit costs could still rise by a mid-single digit percentage if fuel prices remained at current elevated levels, it said.
Goodbody said in a note that the forecasts implied a fall in average fares of around 1% for the fiscal year to March 2027 and the stockbroker said it was cutting its forecast for profit for that year by 14% to €1.93 billion.
Ryanair shares were down 3% in opening trade.
Ryanair today reported an after-tax profit of €2.26 billion for the fiscal year. This compared with a forecast of €2.2 billion in a company poll of analysts and up from €1.61 billion a year earlier - a 40% annual increase.
That did not include an exceptional €85m provision related to a fine from the Italian competition authority in December that it said it expected to be overturned on appeal.
Ryanair said its revenues for the year rose by 11% from €13.95 billion to €15.54 billion.
Its passenger numbers grew by 4% to 208.4 million, despite delivery delays on 29 B-8200 aircraft.
"We've delivered a record year, record traffic, record profits," Michael O'Leary said.
"Clearly at the moment we are going through significant uncertainty," he added.
Meanwhile, Ryanair said today it has "almost concluded" negotiations on an extension to Michael O'Leary's contract to 2032 that would include a 10 million share option agreement, subject to share-price and profit targets.
An earlier share option scheme is set to earn Michael O'Leary as much as €100m.
