A member of the Ryanair cabin crew is looking out the window at the Ryanair planes.
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LONDON – Ryanair expects this fiscal year to be “the most challenging” in its 35-year history, the company said on Monday, as governments step up travel restrictions in an effort to contain new variants of Covid-19.
The budget airline is on track for a net loss of between € 850 million ($ 1.03 billion) and € 950 million for fiscal year 2021, which ends in March. It reported a net loss of 306 million euros for the three months ended December.
“Covid-19 continues to wreak havoc across the industry,” Ryanair said in a statement. He added that Christmas and New Year traffic was “severely affected” by travel bans imposed on travelers from the UK at the end of December.
A number of European governments have decided to impose restrictions on flights leaving the UK before Christmas, after the news that a new variant of Covid-19 identified in the county is spreading rapidly. This contributed to an 83% drop in traffic in December for Ryanair.
The EU must now step up the pace of its launch program to match the UK’s performance.
The carrier “expects that the last blockages and Covid test requirements before arrival will significantly reduce the flight schedule and traffic until Easter”
The new year has seen European governments expand or introduce blockages as they face a sharp rise in new infections. More recently, countries in the region have discouraged non-essential travel as they try to reduce the number of daily cases. It is currently unclear when countries will begin to reopen their economies and go so far as to encourage travel abroad.
However, European governments are in the process of vaccinating people in the hope that this will allow them to return to normal on a daily basis. However, the launch of the vaccine in Europe faces problems of production, supply and bureaucracy.
“We are pleased with the success of the UK vaccination program, which aims to vaccinate almost 50% of the UK’s population (30 million) by the end of March. The EU must now step up the slow pace of launching its program to match Britain’s performance, “Ryanair said on Monday.
Ryanair shares have fallen by about 12% since the beginning of the year.