Ryanair profits crash following volcano

Budget airline Ryanair has reported a 24% fall in quarterly profit after its services were disrupted by the volcanic ash cloud earlier this year.

Ryanair
Ryanair

Ryanair’s profit for the three months to 30 June was €93.7m (£79.6m), down from €123m (£104.8m) in the same period last year.

The Irish airline says it incurred costs of €50m (£43m) following 10,000 cancelled flights as a result of the Icelandic volcano eruption.

Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, says the closure of European airspace in April and May was “unnecessary”.

Total revenue at the airline increased by 16% to €896.8m (£764m), which Ryanair says is down to an 8% rise in traffic and a 5% increase in average fares.

Ryanair says it will continue to grow its business across Europe and plans to announce additional low cost routes and bases later this year.

O’Leary is currently embroiled in a war of words with rival no-frills airline chief Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou.

The EasyJet founder launched a press campaign yesterday slamming the Ryanair chief executive as “arrogant” and representing the “ugly face of capitalism” after Ryanair ran a campaign depicting Sir Stelios as Pinocchio and suggesting he was lying about EasyJet’s punctuality.

Separately, Sir Stelios has launched an advertising campaign to promote Easyholidays.co.uk, a travel initiative that is due to launch as part of EasyGroup, the travel group wholly owned by the entrepreneur.