Ryanair fears it will not carry any traffic over next two months as coronavirus pandemic devastates airline industry
Ryanair expects to carry “minimal if any” traffic for the next two months as the airline’s fleet of planes remains grounded due to travel restrictions and depressed demand.
The company operated more than 33,000 scheduled flights in March, but passenger numbers fell by 48 per cent to 5.7 million, it revealed on Friday.
Ryanair said it was unable to give guidance for the 2021 financial year, but added that its 2020 profit will stay within the lower end of the range it had previously announced.
Ryanair said it expects pre-exceptional profit after tax will fall between 950 million and one billion euros (£830 million to £875 million).
The company told shareholders: “This is due to the response of EU governments to the spread of the Covid-19 virus, which have since mid-March included widespread flight bans and travel restrictions which have closed Europe’s skies to all but a tiny number of rescue and medical flights.”
Over the year the number of passengers who took a Ryanair flight rose just 4 per cent to 149 million, though the company said it had been on track to fly 154 million passengers in early March, before the worst of the pandemic struck Europe.
