Illustration of aircraft of the Ryanair group.

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/ SIPA

The worst year in its history?

The airline Ryanair suffered a net loss of 306 million euros between October and December, the third quarter of its staggered fiscal year.

The airline company is among the collateral victims of the traffic collapse caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Irish low-cost carrier recalls in a statement released Monday that it had achieved a net profit of 88 million euros in the third quarter of its previous fiscal year.

Its turnover plunges by 82%

The group once again suffered, like the rest of the sector, from travel restrictions put in place to stop the spread of the virus and its new variants.

Its quarterly turnover plunged 82% to 340 million euros.

It only carried 8.1 million passengers, a drop of 78% over one year.

"We were hoping things would continue to improve in the third quarter but, the week before Christmas, the emergence of the British and South African variants led to severe restrictions," said Michael O'Leary, group chief executive in a video on the Ryanair website.

The carrier believes that the containments and tests requested before flying will plague traffic until Easter.

It maintains its forecast of traffic of between 26 and 30 million passengers for the 2020-2021 fiscal year which will end at the end of March.

Before the pandemic broke out, the group hoped to carry 155 million passengers this year.

As a result, the current exercise "will continue to be the most difficult in Ryanair's 35-year history", according to the press release.

The group expects an annual loss of between 850 and 950 million euros, while specifying that it is a “prudent” objective.

Ryanair had recorded a net loss of 197 million euros in the first half (completed end of September) and had already forecast an even larger loss in the second half.

The company was forced to take drastic measures to get through the air transport crisis, such as the elimination of 3,000 jobs, or 15% of its workforce, or reductions in the wages of its staff to avoid layoffs.

An aviation sector permanently affected

Ryanair also benefited at the height of the health crisis from the partial unemployment scheme and a loan of £ 600 million from the British public authorities.

It had a total of 3.5 billion euros in cash at December 31, ensuring that it is one of the most comfortable in the sector.

The group believes that the health situation will improve in the coming months thanks to the deployment of vaccines, but expects flight capacities in the European sector to remain limited in the years to come.

Ryanair believes that it is strong enough to emerge from the crisis in a position of strength and take advantage of the setbacks and bankruptcies of other airlines.

In early December, Ryanair even exercised options to purchase more Boeing 737 MAXs, bringing total orders to 210 aircraft.

Over the years, it relies on these aircraft, which will be delivered until 2024, to support its growth.

Brexit, with the United Kingdom's exit from the European single market on January 1, has had no major impact except that the group has limited the voting rights of non-European shareholders.

Brussels requires companies that operate flights within the single market to have a majority of shareholders from the EU.

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