Europe’s biggest low-cost airline receives $1B in losses

Ryanair, the biggest low-cost airline in Europe, together with its subsidiaries, received a loss of 815 million euros (about $990 million) at the end of the 2021 fiscal year (from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021) due to the coronavirus pandemic and travel restrictions, Report informs referring to avianews.com.

The company’s passenger traffic for the year fell by 81 percent - from 148.6 million people to 27.5 million people.

The airline lost on average almost 30 euros for the transportation of each passenger.

At the same time, Ryanair cut operating expenses by 66 percent, but its revenue fell more - by 81% due to the coronavirus pandemic and travel restrictions percent. Due to various travel restrictions, low-cost airlines flew only 71 percent full - this figure is considered low even for expensive classic air carriers. In fact, of 189 seats on Ryanair’s planes, on average 55 were empty on each flight. A year earlier, Ryanair’s cabins were 95 percent full and the low-cost airline was able to generate 1 billion euros in profit in fiscal 2020.

Ryanair’s average fare in fiscal 2021 was 37.7 euros, and revenue per passenger from the sale of ancillary services was 21.8 euros. As a result, the average income per passenger was 59.5 euros.

To keep costs down, Ryanair landed a significant portion of its fleet, cut staff, cut the salaries of its remaining employees, and took part in government programs that helped pay salaries.