Coming a week after rivals easyJet and Wizz Air published their latest quarterly results Ryanair has come up with its own figures.

Always keen to say it is the biggest in whatever European airlines category it is talking about, Ryanair has come up with the largest loss €306m, against €88m profit for the same quarter in 2019.

In the quarter October, November, December 2020 Ryanair flew 8.1m passengers as against 35.9m in 2019, a change of 78%, with a load factor of 70% as against 96% the previous year.  

On the positive side Ryanair concluded a four-year extension of its low-cost growth deal in Stansted to 2028, extending the Group’s low-cost leadership in the key London market.  It has also secured easyJet’s seven based aircraft slot portfolio in Stansted.

Michael O’Leary, chief executive leads from the top and is always keen to fly the flag for his airline and where necessary the industry. 

O'Leary told the BBC's Today programme that he was "heartened" by the fact the UK expected to vaccinate everyone over 50 by the end of March, and that Europe would achieve the same by June.  He said there was a pent-up demand for travel.

Ryanair has 210 of the recently recertified Boeing MAX on order (see BTN 7 December 2020).

www.ryanair.com