Ryanair Holdings PLC on Monday revealed a steep fall in half-year profit, despite steady revenue, as labour and other costs rose.

Ryanair and rival budget carrier Wizz Air Holdings PLC also reported higher passengers totals for October, with firm to higher load factors.

Dublin-based Ryanair said pretax profit dropped 16% to €2.07 billion in six months that ended September 30 from €2.46 billion a year before, even as revenue edged up 1.4% to €8.69 billion compared with €8.58 billion. Within revenue, ticket revenue was down 2.0% to €5.95 billion from €6.07 billion, while ancillary revenue, such as food sales, was up 10% to €2.74 billion from €2.50 billion.

Profit was hurt by an 8.4% rise in operating expenses. This was led by a 21% jump in staff costs, the third largest category of cost, and a 12% increase in airport and handling charges, the second largest. The airline’s biggest expense line, fuel and oil, increased by 3.2%.

Despite the lower profit, Ryanair declared a 22.3 euro cents per share interim dividend, up 27% from 17.5 cents a year before.

Looking ahead, Ryanair said it carried 18.3 million passengers in October, up 7.0% from 17.1 million a year before, with load factor steady at 93%. On a rolling 12-month basis, passenger numbers rose 8.0% to 194.8 million from 180.3 million, with steady load factor of 94%. Ryanair said it still targets between 198 million and 200 million passengers in financial 2025, up 8% annually, but it expects third-quarter fares to be lower and has ‘almost zero Q4 visibility’.

Ryanair said it cannot give full-year profit guidance, saying this depends on ‘avoiding adverse developments’ in the coming five months. These could include further delays on deliveries of aircraft from trouble manufacturer Boeing Co, capacity restrictions due to air traffic control short-staffing, and the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Wizz Air meanwhile reported that passenger numbers in October rose 4.1% to 5.6 million from 5.4 million the same month last year. Capacity increased at the slower pace of 3.7%, to 6.1 million seats from 5.8 million ‘despite the Pratt & Whitney GTF engine-related groundings’. This pushed load factor up to 92.9% from 92.5%.

On a rolling 12-month basis, passenger numbers were 62.5 million, up 6.9% from 58.5 million. Capacity was up 8.2%, so load factor slipped to 90.1% from 91.2%.

The Budapest-based airline noted its announcements in late October that it will open a temporary base in Chisinau, Moldova, and is collaborating with aircraft manufacturer Airbus SE on a sustainable aviation fuel trial on its Barcelona to Budapest and Brussels Charleroi to Budapest routes.

Wizz Air also opened a new €38 million training centre in Rome Fiumicino, which is expected to provide training for over 4,800 pilots per year.

Ryanair shares were down 2.2% to €17.63 in Dublin early Monday. Wizz Air was flat at 1,378.00 pence in London.

Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights reserved.