Ryanair is expecting to fly more passengers this autumn than in the summer, raising its target for the next three months after a “dramatic recovery in traffic and volumes” that could take it past pre-pandemic numbers next year.
The short-haul airline, Europe’s largest carrier, said on Tuesday that it would fly about 10.5 million passengers a month through to November, about 5% more than its target announced a month ago.
The chief executive, Michael O’Leary, said he expected passenger numbers would exceed pre-pandemic levels next summer, with the airline bringing its flight capacity almost back to normal for October.
O’Leary announced an additional 14 routes from London for the winter, seven from Stansted, six from Luton and a Malaga flight from Gatwick, saying Ryanair would create more than 500 new jobs for pilots, cabin crew and engineers at its London airports.
“We think we are leading the recovery, not just here in the UK but in Europe … We’re seeing huge growth opportunities, and only we have the new aircraft deliveries coming to take up this growth.
“We might get close to 11 million in October, then you’re up to 90% of pre-Covid. As long as there’s no adverse Covid development, like a variant emerges that is vaccine resistant ... we think we’ll be back to pre-Covid levels through November-February, and by next summer we’ll be growing significantly ahead of pre-Covid volumes.”
In July, the airline said it would fly 100 million passengers over the financial year to March 2022 after bookings surged with travel restrictions easing after vaccination programmes around Europe, although it continued to forecast losses.
It has said it would need to recruit 2,000 pilots over the next three years to rebuild after the pandemic, and has started to take delivery of its first Boeing 737 Max aircraft, which O’Leary has labelled a “gamechanger” for its enhanced fuel efficiency and costs per seat.
In January, UK and EU regulators cleared the 737 Max to fly again, ending a 22-month ban introduced after it was involved in two fatal disasters. O’Leary said no passenger had raised concerns over the first four months of its operations of the model, with 12 of the 210 aircraft ordered now delivered. He admitted: “It’s imperative the Max goes through the next 12-18 months incident-free.”
He added: “The whole safety issue has been consigned to history, it’s a great aircraft – any plane that offers you 4% more seats and burns 16% less fuel is my favourite airplane.”
O’Leary said the airline was now well positioned after the pandemic – while rivals – including European airlines such as Alitalia were kept afloat by state aid.
He said: “If European governments are going to bail out their legacy airlines by local taxpayers, to divert funds away from schools and hospitals, it’s not surprising there haven’t been more failures.”
However, he said the bailouts had stopped them reforming and lowering costs: “We’ve negotiated with Boeing, agreed pay cuts with crew … we’ll emerge with a lower cost base, can offer lower fares and will recover more quickly.”
Despite O’Leary’s bullish optimism, Ryanair’s share price fell almost 3% on Tuesday, matched by similar falls for rival airlines including Wizz Air and British Airways’ owner IAG.
O’Leary criticised the UK government’s handling of international travel during the pandemic and urged it to scrap all restrictions for double-vaccinated passengers in and out of Europe. He said the traffic light system had “introduced uncertainty and reduced confidence”, adding: “You should do away with it because it’s bogus, certainly for intra-European… if you’re double vaccinated there should be no restrictions, given the high rate of vaccinations.”
He said that “Brexit strains” were starting to affect aspects of the Ryanair operation, adding with heavy sarcasm: “All the leading political figures here who said the money would come back from the EU and there would be no barriers to trade have been completely vindicated.”
He said: “Supply chains have broken down, you don’t have enough fucking drivers, no one wants to pick the fruit – and meanwhile Michael Gove is bopping away at some rave in Aberdeen.
“I hate to say we told you so, but we did tell you so.”