Ryanair has doubled its annual loss forecast due to the impact of the Covid-19 omicron variant. The appearance of the new variant has led to a sharp reduction in flight bookings at the end of the year.
The carrier now expects annual losses of between €250 million and €450 million, ($283 million and $482 million), up from the €100 million to €200 million ($126 million to $226 million) the company had initially forecast. The slowdown in bookings has forced the company to reduce its planned carrying capacity to 33%.
The recent travel restrictions in Europe significantly weakened our Christmas and New Year bookings.
Ryanair
The travel ban on UK travelers who do not have an essential reason to travel to France and Germany, as well as the suspension of all EU flights to and from Morocco lowered December traffic expectations for Ryanair from between 10-11 million travelers to between 6 and 7 million, the company announced.
Ryanair will wait until next month to revise its February and March schedules, “as more scientific information becomes available on the Omicron variant, its impact on hospitalizations, European population and/or travel restrictions”.
The airline industry is one of the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic and international travel restrictions. Ryanair had the worst fiscal year in its history in 2020-2021, when it lost close to 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) and announced the elimination of 3,000 jobs, 15% of its employees.
Ryanair announced it now expects to fly just under 100 million passengers in the year to the end of March. “These figures are sensitive to any further positive or negative Covid-19 news,” the company announced.
