Low fares airline Ryanair has announced record net profits of €115.7million for its first three months of its financial year which ended June 30. Passenger numbers grew by 25 per cent to 10.7 million passengers. The results showed revenue increasing by 40 per cent to €566.6million, while costs, including fuel, rose by just 6 per cent to €167.5million. The increase in Ryanair’s profitability boosted cash balances which rose by €212.4million to €2.18billion.
Ryanair’s Chief Executive Officer, Michael O’Leary, said, “The underlying causes of these stronger first quarter yields was primarily the presence of Easter in the quarter (and its absence from the prior year comparable), many more “sun” destinations, the impact of competitors fuel surcharges which continue to drive traffic towards Ryanair, the initial impact of our baggage charging initiative, and the earlier launch of our new bases and routes, much of which took place in the fourth quarter last year.
To date, Malta is not one of the “sun destinations” from which Ryanair operates. Back in September 2005, Ryanair chief Mr. Michael Cawley had stated that he was tired of discussions to bring the low-cost airline to Malta as these were leading nowhere.
Meanwhile, Ryanair’s passenger figures for July were reached a total of 3,940,792, which is 23 per cent up on the July 2005 total. Over the twelve months to 31 July, Ryanair carried a total of 37,626,423 passengers.
“We remain on target to achieve our objective of becoming the world’s largest international scheduled airline by passenger traffic, whilst at the same time growing profitability and reducing costs for the benefit of our passengers, our people and our shareholders. We continue to believe that this growth in traffic and profits will be achieved thanks to Ryanair’s unique combination of lowest costs, lowest fares and industry leading customer service,” concluded Mr O’Leary.
In the recent months the government has intensified its efforts to determine the way forward on the matter of low cost airlines, which has been at the centre of controversy. On July 21, the government issued a call for proposals from low cost airlines to operate new and underserved routes to Malta.
The call, for which offers will be received by noon of Friday, 25th August, opens up the possibility for low cost airlines to operate to Malta by means of scheduled air services from Luton airport (United Kingdom); any airport in Northern Ireland; any airport in the Republic of Ireland; Pisa airport (Italy) and Mulhouse-Basel airport.
Unfortunately, Maltese tourism figures dwindled by 4.6% in June 2006 in a year-by-year comparison issued by the National Statistics Office (NSO). In turn, between January and June 2006 tourism registered a decrease of 2.4% over the comparable period last year.
The Maltese tourism scene could suffer even more if, as forecast by British survey by AC Nielsen, Maltese tourist packages from Britain will indeed be the third most expensive in the region by 2007, tempting holiday makers to spend their vacation in Spain, Portugal and Greece as a cheaper alternative.
See also:
Holiday industry awaits low-cost airlines
By MaltaMedia News - Jul 24, 2006, 09:07 CET
Proposals call for low-cost airlines
By MaltaMedia News - Jul 20, 2006, 16:20 CET
Declining tourists could deter Malta promotion
By MaltaMedia News - Aug 18, 2006, 10:14 CET
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