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Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said: “We are pleased to report strong growth in traffic and profits in Q1.
Our mix of low fares, best on time performance (91% in Q1) and enhanced customer experience
under our “Always Getting Better” (“AGB”) programme, continues to attract millions of new customers. At the same time our focus on cost (Q1 unit costs fell 7%) enables us to pass on lower fares to customers. Q1 average fare fell 4% to just €45, due to the timing of Easter, weaker April yieldsand lower checked bag penetration as more families and business customers enjoy discounts on their luggage or benefit from our free 2ndcarry-on bag policy.
New Routes and Bases: We continue to be inundated with growth offers from primary and secondary airports, whose incumbent carriers are cutting capacity and traffic. These new airports, along with our 72 existing bases offer significant growth opportunities as we embark on our new B737-800 programme. This winter we take delivery of 31 aircraft which (net of lease returns), means our fleet will increase to 340 B737-800’s by year end.
In September we open our6th German base in Berlin where we have a 5% share of the German market and expect to grow this strongly over the next 5 years. Gothenburg (our 2ndSwedish base) will also open in September. In November, Israel will become our 31st country served when we start flights to Eilat Ovda Airport from Budapest, Kaunas and Krakow.
Two weeks ago we decided, in the best interests of our customers and people, to close our 2 Danish bases in Copenhagen and Billund. This followed threats by the Danish Unions who admitted that they had no members among our Copenhagen pilots or cabin crew to get their members (competitor airline employees) to blockade/disrupt our flights. By moving the aircraft from Copenhagen and Billund to airports outside Denmark the unions have no legal basis for imposing these threatened disruptions, which allows us to continue to grow strongly in Copenhagen without union interference”.
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