Ryanair cautious about ‘fragile’ recovery, berates Boeing

Ryanair said it was impossible to give detailed guidance beyond hoping to return to “reasonable profitability” this year amid uncertainties over Covid-19 and the Ukraine war, knocking its shares after posting a smaller annual loss.
Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers also became the latest Boeing customer to criticise the planemaker.
CEO Michael O’Leary said its management needed to step up and deliver aircraft more quickly or make way for a new team.
Ryanair posted a €355mn ($369mn) loss for the pandemic-scarred 12 months to March 31 on Monday and said it planned to grow its traffic to 165mn passengers this year, from 97mn a year ago and a pre-Covid-19 record of 149mn.
However, O’Leary said it was “impractical, if not impossible” to provide a sensible or accurate profit guidance range until the second half of its fiscal year, given the continued potential risks.
O’Leary added that while bookings had improved in recent weeks, he was a little concerned that competitors were talking up the summer recovery too much and that caution was needed heading into a winter with an expected economic downturn. “It’s too fragile, there remains too many moving parts,” O’Leary said, adding that Ryanair would nevertheless thrive if any of its markets dip into recession due to its lower cost base and ability to offer lower fares than its competitors.
Chief financial officer Neil Sorahan told Reuters fares were lower in recent weeks than the company had anticipated following a drop of 27% last year.
While cautiously optimistic that peak summer fares will be “somewhat ahead” of pre-pandemic levels, O’Leary said it was impossible to predict winter pricing.
Customers were also still waiting until much closer than usual to the time of their trips to book, he added.
O’Leary also said that while Ryanair remained a willing Boeing customer and hoped to receive more of the planemaker’s new 737-800 jets than planned over the next two summers, it could turn to the second-hand leasing market to fuel further growth unless Boeing stepped up with some additional orders.
Ryanair last year walked away from negotiations with Boeing for 200 of its largest type of single-aisle jet, the 737 MAX 10. O’Leary described Boeing management on Monday as “running around like headless chickens” and said “they need to bloody well improve”.
“Boeing need a management reboot in Seattle and either the existing management needs to up its game or they need to change the existing management,” O’Leary told an analyst call.
A spokesperson for Boeing was not immediately available for comment.
At the end of April, Boeing expressed doubts over hitting jet delivery targets as technical problems, inflation and supplier risks clouded its path toward recovery.