Ryanair Holding, Europe’s largest airline by number of customers, has announced its financial results for the first half of the fiscal year. The Irish company grew year-on-year, with profit after tax for the six months to the end of September rising 59 percent year-on-year to €2.18 billion.
Ryanair’s aircraft carried 105 million passengers, representing a year-on-year increase of 11 percent.
The company also promised for the first time to pay investors a regular dividend, which it says should amount to 400 million euros. “We are pleased to report good half-year results thanks to a very strong Easter and record summer traffic,” group chief Michael O’Leary said in a video presentation, according to Reuters.
“The board also believes that now is the right time to announce a proper dividend policy,” he added. The airline has paid extraordinary dividends in the past, according to Reuters, but has always shied away from promising regular payouts. The planned amount of the dividend, i.e. 400 million, is equal to the amount that the shareholders invested in the company at the height of the pandemic, the agency notes Bloomberg.
The said amount will be divided between a payment of 200 million euros in February and 200 million euros in September next year. For the next accounting period, Ryanair plans to pay out approximately a quarter of the profit after tax from the previous year in the form of a regular dividend.
At the same time, the low-cost carrier drew attention to rising costs. The economic results were negatively affected, for example, by the rising price of aviation gasoline or delayed deliveries of 737 Max aircraft from the American manufacturer Boeing.
According to the financial director Neil Sorahan, about ten of the 57 ordered machines, which were supposed to strengthen the Ryanair fleet this year, will perhaps take off for the first time next winter. Money, on the other hand, was brought in by more expensive tickets – the carrier’s prices increased by 24 percent year-on-year.
But the competition also did well. For example, the German carrier Lufthansa is also registering an increase in passengers and has also announced an increase in ticket prices. The company intends to meet analysts’ forecasts and achieve an operating profit of at least 2.6 billion euros this year.
2023-11-06 11:16:20
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