Ryanair Holdings on Monday reported first-half profit after tax of €2.15bn on Monday, down 15% from €2.54bn a year earlier, as fares fell 4% even as traffic grew 6% to 125.8m passengers.
The Irish budget carrier, Europe's largest airline by passenger numbers, said revenue rose 3% to €10.08bn while operating costs climbed 10% to €7.69bn, squeezed by a doubling in the price of its unhedged jet fuel.
Scheduled revenue rose 1% to €7bn as the 6% traffic gain was offset by fares falling 4%, which chief executive Michael O'Leary attributed to the absence of a full Easter in April and to Middle East conflict-driven booking hesitancy.
Ancillary revenue grew 6% to €3.08bn, broadly tracking traffic growth.
In the second quarter alone, profit after tax fell 6% to €1.61bn as revenue rose 4% to €5.70bn and average fares dipped 2% to €63.40.
"While oil prices remain volatile, the group has extended FY28 hedge cover on recent price dips to 25% at c.$95bbl," O'Leary said.
Ryanair ended September with gross cash of €2.6bn, down from €3.6bn at the end of March, after €1.3bn of debt repayments, €0.8bn of capital expenditure and €0.4bn of shareholder distributions in the half.
The airline repaid its final €1.2bn bond in May, a milestone it has said left the group effectively debt-free for the first time since its 1997 flotation, with net cash standing at €2bn at the end of September.
Ryanair completed its latest €750m share buyback in September, cancelling around 28.6m shares, and has now retired more than 40% of its issued share capital since 2008.
The board declared an interim dividend of €0.273 per share, payable in late February, and launched a new €800m buyback programme expected to run for approximately 10 months from late February.
The airline trimmed its full-year traffic target to 214m passengers from 216m, a reduction announced in September to limit exposure to unhedged fuel, which means winter traffic from November to March is expected to be broadly flat year-on-year. Fuel hedging stands at 80% for fiscal 2027 at roughly $67 per barrel, insulating current-year earnings, while fiscal 2028 cover has been extended to 25% at roughly $95 per barrel.
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Ryanair flagged a far larger challenge ahead, in terms of fuel costs, as it estimates its fuel bill will rise by around €2bn in fiscal 2028 as cheaper hedges expire, a gap it says higher European short-haul fares are unlikely to fully offset.
The airline said it is reviewing costs across the group, including airport negotiations, labour agreements that may require temporary pay freezes, and increased use of artificial intelligence to improve productivity.
Looking to next summer, Ryanair plans to take delivery of its first 16 Boeing MAX-10 aircraft following FAA certification, which it expects will be matched by EASA before year-end, supporting a target to grow traffic to over 220m passengers in fiscal 2028.
