RYA Ryanair Holdings Plc

By Anthony O. Goriainoff

Ryanair Holdings PLC said Monday that it swung to a net loss in its latest fiscal year, citing the effects of the pandemic, and the budget airline said it expects traffic in the first quarter to be heavily curtailed--to between 5 million and 6 million passengers.

The London-listed airline said visibility for the rest of the year ending in March 2022 is practically zero, and although bookings have jumped significantly from a very low base since the first week of April, it is impossible to provide meaningful guidance for the fiscal year.

For the year ended March 31, its net loss was 1.02 billion euros ($1.24 billion) compared with a profit of EUR648.7 million in fiscal 2020 and a consensus loss of EUR1.04 billion, taken from FactSet and based on 13 analysts' estimates.

The adjusted loss after tax--a key measure for Ryanair--was EUR815.4 million compared with a profit after tax of EUR1.00 billion the year before. In April the company said it expected an adjusted loss around EUR800 million to EUR850 million.

Ryanair's pretax loss for the year was EUR1.11 billion compared with a profit of EUR670.3 million the year before, Ireland-based Ryanair said.

Revenue for fiscal 2021 was EUR1.64 billion compared with EUR8.49 billion a year earlier. FactSet revenue consensus for the year was EUR1.63 billion, based on 21 analysts polled.

The load factor--a measure of how full a plane is--for the year was 71%, compared with a load factor of 95% for fiscal 2020.

"The group expects to benefit from a strong rebound of pent-up travel demand through the second half of 2021, and looks forward to returning to pre-Covid growth in summer 2022 with the help of the Gamechanger aircraft and new bases," the company said.

Write to Anthony O. Goriainoff at anthony.orunagoriainoff@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 17, 2021 01:27 ET (05:27 GMT)

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