Ryanair shares up after record H1 results

[MongiIG]

Discount airline Ryanair has surpassed its pre-Covid levels of profitability and published a record number for the interims amid an increase in fares of 7%.

 Jeremy Naylor | Writer, London | Publication date: Monday 07 November 2022

Ryanair bucks the trend

It's tough for airlines post-Covid and into the economic downturn we're seeing at the moment, as we see many of them fail to regain the ground that we saw pre-Covid.

Not so for Ryanair. It's posted its largest ever after-tax profit for the first half (H1) of this financial year. Europe's largest airline by passenger numbers earned €1.37 billion in the period a record. Ryanair said it was hopeful it could deliver an after-tax profit of between €1bn and €1.2bn for the year through to the end of March.

Significantly, the numbers are better than they were pre-pandemic, and the question is, how has it done it? Well, fares are higher by a margin of 7% than they were in the pre-Covid 2020 financial year.

Share price chart

Let's take a look at the chart. We can see clearly on the Irish Exchange where it trades it's currently trading at 1271.

Now, this is up over 3% on the session today and at levels at the moment now, not seen since the 13th of September. It has nonetheless been difficult for shareholders after the highs we saw up to €18.40 trading at 1271.

The increase in numbers over the half-year would have been higher. But with the invasion of Ukraine according to Ryanair ticket take up was up 14% in the second half of the year, which is offset by lower first quarter fares. So the company is doing the best it can in the circumstances.

We'll have to see how things develop further on this, whether or not we see any further gains. But at the moment, at least, we're trading up on the session by a margin of over 3%.