Ryanair: cutting capacity further, shares fall

(CercleFinance.com) - Ryanair, Europe's largest budget airline, is cutting further its winter schedule, taking capacity down from 60% to 40% of prior year levels.


The low-cost carrier said increased flight restrictions in Europe have caused bookings to weaken "slightly" in October, and then to drop "materially" in November and December.

In light of its reduced winter capacity, Ryanair now expects full-year traffic to fall to approximately 38 million passengers, although this guidance could be further revised downwards if more lockdowns were to come over the winter, it said.

The company said it still aims at sustaining a 70% load factor, which allows it to operate close to breakeven and minimise cash burn.

Ryanair said, however, that it will have to implement more unpaid leave, or even redundancies when agreements have not been found with cabin crew on working time and pay cuts.

The London-listed shares were trading 3% lower on Thursday after these announcements.

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