The weak sterling is playing havoc with Ryanair’s earnings as the airline has predicted its average fares to fall by between 13pc and 15pc.
The Irish aviation giant has reduced its full-year profit estimate by 5pc to between €1.3bn and €1.35bn, meaning profits are set to grow by 7pc from 2015.
Average fares were originally envisaged to fall by between 10pc and 12pc, however a massive drop off in the value of sterling has caused Ryanair to re-evaluate.
The company said fares in the first half of the year were “marginally weaker” than first expected but that improved cost performance had minimised the effect.
Ryanair said full-year load factor to by 1pc better and predicts traffic for the year to hit 119 million customers, up 12pc.
“The recent sharp decline in sterling post Brexit (which accounts for approx. 26pc of Ryanair’s FY17 revenues) will weaken H2 yields by slightly more than we had originally expected.
“While higher load factors, stronger traffic growth and better cost control will help to ameliorate these weaker revenues, it is prudent now to adjust full year guidance which will rise by approximately 7pc (over FY 2016) rather than our original guidance of 12pc,” Mr O’Leary said.
Article Source: http://tinyurl.com/kbwqb42
