The Irish low-cost airline Ryanair reported a dramatic drop in its profit in the third quarter of the financial year, which ended at the end of December, the world agencies reported. Net profit after tax shrank to €30m – a slump of more than 80% from €149m a year earlier.
This result was heavily influenced by a €256 million mega fine imposed by the Italian antitrust authority.
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The Italian Competition Commission fined the carrier for “abuse of a dominant position” and obstructing the activities of travel agencies and intermediaries.
According to the regulator, Ryanair pursued a “complex strategy” aimed at blocking, hindering or limiting the purchase of flights from ryanair.com in combination with flights of other carriers or travel services.
The antimonopoly authority found that the company acted in three stages.
- First, it introduced facial recognition procedures for customers who bought tickets through third parties, which penalized middlemen.
- It then “totally or intermittently blocked booking attempts from travel agencies”, including by blocking payment methods or deleting accounts.
- Finally, in early 2024, Ryanair imposed affiliate agreements on online agencies, prohibiting the sale of tickets in combination with other carriers, and then extended the requirement to physical agencies.
The airline is appealing the fine, calling it “groundless” and has earmarked €85 million, a sum covering about a third of the fine imposed.
Despite the financial hit, Ryanair’s operating performance remains strong. Revenue rose 9% to 3.21 billion euros, supported by higher passenger numbers and slightly higher fares. The number of passengers increased by 6% to 47.5 million, and the average price of a ticket jumped by 4% to 44 euros.
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The airline is also decommissioning five aircraft, which will result in an investment loss of $500 million
The company is optimistic about the future, expecting traffic in the 2026 financial year to grow by 4%, reaching around 208 million passengers. Management forecast that tickets would beat the previous forecast of 7% growth by 1-2 percentage points, leading to annual pre-tax profit of between €2.13bn and €2.23bn – a significant increase from last year’s €1.6bn.
