Ryanair FY16 Profit Climbs; Says Cautiously Expects Modest Profit Growth

(RTTNews) - Irish no-frills airline Ryanair (RYA.L, RYAAY) reported Monday that its fiscal 2016 profit before tax grew 43 percent to 1.72 billion euros from 982.4 million euros last year. Earnings per share were 115.63 euros, higher than 62.46 euros last year.

The latest results included exceptional accounting gain of 317.5 million euros on sale of Aer Lingus shareholding.

Adjusted pre-tax profit was 1.40 billion euros and adjusted attributable profit was 1.24 billion euros or 92.08 euros per share.

Revenues for the year climbed 16 percent to 6.54 billion euros from 5.65 billion euros a year ago. Scheduled revenues grew 17 percent and Ancillary revenues grew 13 percent.

Traffic went up 18 percent to 106.4 million customers as load factor grew 5 percent to 93 percent.

Unit costs fell 6 percent, while it was down 2 percent ex-fuel. Average fare dropped 1 percent.

The company noted that the fourth quarter yields on close-in Easter bookings were adversely impacted by over 500 flight cancellations following the Brussels terrorist attacks and repeated (mainly French) ATC strikes.

Looking ahead, the company said it cautiously expects full year net profit to rise modestly, by approximately 13 percent, to a range of 1.375 billion euros to 1.425 billion euros.

This guidance remains heavily dependent on the strength of close-in summer bookings and next winter's yields, the strength of Sterling and the absence of any further external shocks or significant ATC strikes/cancellations.