Ryanair (LON:RYA) raised its long-term passenger forecast by 10 percent on Monday, despite Brexit uncertainties.
The low-cost airline expects to carry more than 200 million passengers by the end of July, after reporting a 7 percent increase in profits for the first half of the financial year and an average £15 pound profit made for each individual passenger. The company reported revenue of €1.168 billion (£1.04 billion) across the the April-to-September period, describing it as “a strong first half”.
Despite strong performance figures, Ryanair do anticipate some turbulence as a result of Brexit. In the wake of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, the airline has reduced its planned UK growth in 2017 from 12 percent to about 5 percent. However, the airline did see strong growth at two major UK airports with Birmingham up 9.7 per cent and Gatwick 6.5 percent across the course of the summer.
The group said in a statement: “Weaker air fares and Brexit uncertainty will be the dominant features of [the second half of the year].”
Last month, Ryanair reduced their profit forecast, citing the effect of a weaker pound post-Brexit as a key reason for the revision. At the time of the profit warning, the company predicted net profit would be within the region of €1.3 billion to €1.35 billion (£1.17 billion-£1.2 billion), 5 percent below its previous estimations.
Chief executive Michael O’Leary said in remarks to the BBC that business was “booming”, however the environment in the UK remained “bearish” in the wake of the Brexit decision.
In response to the current climate, the airline announced its attention to reduce fares to encourage costumers to fly more.
“It’s bad news for my shareholders, but great news for my customers,” he stated.
Mr O’Leary also criticised the British government’s handling of Brexit negotiations, claiming that they had “no idea” how to deal with Brexit.
In spite of raising long-term passenger forecasts, in their latest statement Ryanair said that whilst it remained “comfortable” with these expected figures, they needed to remain cautious during the final quarter of the year.