Irish airline Ryanair expects an annual loss of 250-450 million euros, about half the initially expected figure, thus lowering earnings expectations due to the impact of the Ómicron variable, it was announced this Wednesday.
Ryanair expected losses of between 100 and 200 million euros.
The company said in a statement that the new forecast is caused by a sharp drop in bookings for the Christmas and New Year’s season.
“The covid-19 variant Omicron and recent travel restrictions in Europe have significantly weakened our bookings,” the carrier explains.
“This sudden slowdown prompted Ryanair this week to reduce its planned transport capacity by 33%” in January, he adds.
The airline has not yet made a decision on February and March.
Ryanair hopes to have more clarity on Ómicron’s effects on European travel restrictions when third-quarter numbers are released on January 31.
The UK’s ban on non-essential passenger travel to France and Germany and the suspension of all EU flights to and from Morocco lowered Ryanair’s traffic forecast for December from a range of 10-11 million passengers to between 9 and 9.5. Million.
The aviation sector is one of the sectors hardest hit by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, with health restrictions on international travel affecting air traffic.
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