Ryanair is being forced to sell tickets at a discount in the face of lower than expected demand from summer holidaymakers.
The budget carrier said that a lack of mid-week bookings was forcing it to resort to special offers in order to fill some flights. The weekend market has been stronger.
It came as the company appointed Amber Rudd, a former Tory cabinet minister and leading critic of Brexit, as a non-executive director.
Neil Sorahan, chief financial officer, said that the company had launched a wave of €19.99 (£17) ticket offers as a result.
He said: “Bookings for the summer are strong and our load factors are good, but we’re having to run slightly more €19.99 offers than we’d expected to fill some of those midweek flights.”
Demand this quarter has been “softer than expected” and pricing in the peak months of July and August will now most likely be “flat to modestly ahead of last summer,” Ryanair said.
Europe’s biggest low-cost carrier had earlier predicted a significant jump in fares, spurred by strong demand coupled with constraints on short-haul capacity stemming from the production crisis at Boeing and the recall of large numbers of Airbus jets for engine repairs.
Mr Sorahan said that mid-week demand is likely to pick up once school holidays start in July and that pricing could still jump.
Ryanair’s fares are already higher after surging 21pc last year to an average just short of €50, as foreign travel continued its rebound from Covid.
Ryanair’s full year after-tax profit increased 34pc to €1.92bn in the year through March, while passenger numbers rose 9pc to 184 million.
The tally this fiscal year will be in the region of 200 million, Ryanair confirmed. The figure is five million short of the level originally targeted as Boeing slows production of the 737 Max jet amid safety concerns prompted by the blowout of a door plug from an Alaska Airlines plane in January.
As of the end of July, 23 fewer Max jets will have been delivered than initially planned.
The airline added: “There remains a risk that Boeing deliveries could slip further.”
Amber Rudd, who served as Home Secretary under Theresa May, will join the Ryanair board from July 1. Ms Rudd, an investment banker before entering Parliament in 2010, was also energy and climate change secretary under David Cameron. She stood down as an MP at the 2019 general election.
Mr Sorahan said: “The UK is such a key market for us and we feel it’s important to have a British citizen on our board. She’ll bring a lot of good contacts and has a very strong environmental background.”
Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s chief executive, has been withering in his criticism of successive Conservative governments and remains an arch-opponent of Brexit.
Ms Rudd was a leading voice in the campaign against a no-deal departure from the European Union and for a time backed a second referendum. Her brother, the PR chief Roland Rudd, was chairman of the unsuccessful People’s Vote campaign.
With Easter 2025 falling in April, and depriving Ryanair of a boost at the end of its current financial year, the company said it was too early to be able to provide profit guidance for the year.
Boeing deliveries and the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East were also a factor.
Ryanair will launch a €700m share buyback programme to boost shareholders return in addition to its dividend, the first since the pandemic.
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