Bangkok--Sep 30--eTurbo news
LONDON (eTurboNews) -- Ryanair, the Irish low fare airline, has unveiled record half year profits in spite of the increases in fuel costs that have hit all airlines. The figures show the airline has made a profit in every one of the last thirty quarters. Ryanair's boss, Michael O'Leary repeated his pledge that Ryanair will not raise fares by adding any fuel surcharges, and he gave a warning that other airlines would fail because they cannot cope with the dual pressure of lower fares and higher fuel charges.
Ryanair said it had experienced a growth in traffic by 24 percent to 14.1 million passengers, and suggested that this was because travelers were put off by the fuel surcharges imposed by other airlines. Fuel costs dented Ryanair's yields, which declined by 5 percent, but total revenues still rose by 21 percent to US$720 million. And while profit overall fell by one percent, Ryanair chalked up an industry leading 28 percent.
"We anticipate that there will be further airline casualties as the 'perfect storm' of declining fares and record high oil prices force loss making carriers out of the industry," said a jubilant chief executive, Michael O'Leary.
Traffic grew by 24 percent to 14.1 million passengers, yields declined by 5 percent and consequently total revenues rose by 21 percent to 721 million euro (US$921 million). Unit costs (excluding fuel and route charges) fell by 4 percent and (including fuel and route charges unit costs remained flat) and as a result the profit margin after tax declined by 1 percent to an industry leading 28 percent.
"These record traffic and profit figures show just how robust Ryanair's lowest fares model remains even in a very difficult economic environment characterized by record fuel prices and intense price competition. Like Southwest, this is Ryanair's 30th consecutive quarter of unbroken profitability since we floated in May 1997," said O'Leary.
Ryanair pressure to keep costs down is relentless. Excluding fuel costs and route charges, all other unit costs were reduced by 4 percent, partly because of the introduction of more cost-efficient Boeing 737-800 aircraft and new airport agreements with lower landing and service charges. None of this has reduced the quality of service and O'Leary stressed that Ryanair had maintained its record of high standards in punctuality.
"We have again reduced Europe's lowest fares by 5 percent whilst delivering our passengers the best punctuality with the least cancellations and fewest lost bags in the industry," he said.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority recently released on-time statistics that confirmed Ryanair as the number one on-time major airline operating to/from the main UK airports. In addition Ryanair customers are enjoying these benefits on a fleet of brand new Boeing 737-800 aircraft, with all leather seating, through convenient local airports using Europe's largest travel website.
Ryanair will shortly be the first low fares airline in the world to introduce an Inflight Entertainment System (IFE) for all passengers featuring latest Hollywood movies, chart topping music videos, kids cartoons, sitcoms and audio CDs.
"Ryanair's customer service offering is now superior to all of our high fare competitors and our rapid growth in traffic and market share testifies to this fact," said O'Leary.
Central to Ryanair's success is prudent route growth. Ryanir has established new bases in Barcelona and Rome which exceeded performance expectations, and the airline launched 41 new routes during the summer. This winter Ryanair will offer low-fare flights to a range of popular emerging destinations including Riga in Latvia, Santander, Seville and Valencia in Spain, and Porto in Portugal
For more information, please contact
[email protected]
http://www.travelwirenews.com/medie End.