Ryanair profits soar

ClayDavis

breakingnews.ie wrote:

Ryanair made a €319m profit last year after tax - that is a 204% increase on the previous year. Annual results posted this morning show the company carried over 66 million passengers in the year to the end of March, an increase of 14% on the previous 12 months. They are also proposing to pay a one-off dividend of €500m in October, subject to shareholder approval. Read more: here

Anyone else find this a little bit surprising? I was kind of thinking
1. Recession
2. Volcano Ash
3. ?????
4. Profit

woodseb

not surprising at all, it's a recession and they are the lowest cost operator, hence the increase in passengers - the results are only up to the end of March so no volcano effect in them and the previous 1Q09 was a much worse economic situation

Triangle

They are also well run on this front (i.e. aim = making money)

Japer

Its great to see them making money and doing their business so well. They must be the most successful brand / business ever to come out of Ireland ? Its a pity our other p.l.c's - like the banks - were not as well run. When I hear Italians and Germans talking about using Ryanair it makes me proud to be Irish. Fair play to Michael O'Leary.

ei.sdraob

we cant have an Irish company making money, grudge grudge

we should forcibly nationalize it
and have the state run the airline

what could possibly go wrong :P

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

amiable

Well done ryanair

ClayDavis

I wasn't having a dig at Ryanair at all, quite the opposite in fact. I was just suprised that they managed to overcome such huge obstacles in this climate. It's a great achievement.

RichardAnd

This will probably come up on Liveline in the next few days. No doubt there will be many well thought out and concise opinions offered by well read people who have fully informed themselves before forming an opinion.

Oh look, a pig flew past my window

Valmont

I love how the underpants gnome model has pervaded mainstream culture! I was going to express my surprise at Ryanair's profits too, but then I remembered I have six flights booked with them over the next 4 months!

Tora Bora

If only Mick would retire from Ryanair, and be given the job of restructuring the PS
Lenny's problems would be sorted in 3 months:cool:

smellslikeshoes

ClayDavis wrote: »

Anyone else find this a little bit surprising? I was kind of thinking
1. Recession
2. Volcano Ash
3. ?????
4. Profit

The time when the volcano was erupting isn't included though.

Banned Account

I'm always a bit skeptical about the huge effect oil price has on the bottom line. I know that it's one of the main costs but a lack of hedging really leaves them at market mercy does it not?

AlekSmart

Surely Micko`s gift to his shareholders is largely due to the collapse of the Boeing orders going forward ?
This left Ryanair with skipfulls of cash in their bank and nuttin to spend it on,so Mick sez...give it back in dividend payments..or am I totally wrong ??

Scarab80

AlekSmart wrote: »

Surely Micko`s gift to his shareholders is largely due to the collapse of the Boeing orders going forward ?
This left Ryanair with skipfulls of cash in their bank and nuttin to spend it on,so Mick sez...give it back in dividend payments..or am I totally wrong ??

Nope you are 100% right.

There will probably be a lot more dividend payments in the future as expansion in the number of new routes slows. Sure Mick is near retirement, he's brought the company from no where to the biggest airline in Europe, job done, let the cash roll in now.

DublinWriter

Fitzcaraldo wrote: »

I'm always a bit skeptical about the huge effect oil price has on the bottom line. I know that it's one of the main costs but a lack of hedging really leaves them at market mercy does it not?

Yes it does, and they were so in the sh*t back in 2008 because of it.

They are a very reactionary organisation, they don't play the long game and one blip does not a summer make.

murphaph

I know it's a real Joe Duffy type thing to say but seriously, Michael O'Leary would actually be able to sort Ireland out.

Chris_5339762

He was on Sky News this morning and I gotta say by god did he make a LOT of sense.

The_Thing

Oh look, a pig flew past my window

That was O'Leary doing a fly-by on his way to Germany to oversee those "Highly Skilled Jobs".

Banned Account

Scarab80 wrote: »

Nope you are 100% right.

There will probably be a lot more dividend payments in the future as expansion in the number of new routes slows. Sure Mick is near retirement, he's brought the company from no where to the biggest airline in Europe, job done, let the cash roll in now.

The skeptic in me thinks that the only reason for the dividend payment is that O'Leary has made it clear in recent times that he is looking to step down and loving care for his herd of Angus cattle. In effect he has given himself a golden handshake with a net value of €20m.

If new management follows his methods (given the grooming I think this is likely) there will not be too many more dividends from Ryanair in the years to come.

dan_d

Fitzcaraldo wrote: »

The skeptic in me thinks that the only reason for the dividend payment is that O'Leary has made it clear in recent times that he is looking to step down and loving care for his herd of Angus cattle. In effect he has given himself a golden handshake with a net value of €20m.

If new management follows his methods (given the grooming I think this is likely) there will not be too many more dividends from Ryanair in the years to come.

Have to say I agree. Fair play to them, they've lowered air travel prices, and done a good job of breaking that industry wide open. But they've now gone as low as they can go....their prices are at rock bottom and they can only go up - as can be seen from all the extra fees and charges being added. I personally think Michael O'Leary has had his day. I'm not saying they're going to go bust or anything, but he's scraping the bottom of the barrel at this stage, and there's not much more he can do. All the same it's good to hear some good news about an irish company for once!

ednwireland

yep must agree
i'm flying with them next week (first time in years) only because 2 return flights came to 32 euro (including everything), this is where they are in the market, i will normally fly someone else just to avoid the trumpets on landing

but at that price i cant

i'm sure that the snow and volcanoe didnt cost them as much as most of their staff (i think) are only paid when they are flying

Japer

I normally fly with Ryanair because their flights tend to be more punctual, and because their staff tend to be more helpful. They do not have a unionised attitude....indeed I think many Ryanair employees have shares in the airline so they have a vested interest in it doing well. I do not work for Ryanair, just travel with them now and again, and thank God we are not back in the days when Aer Lingus had a monopoly and charged a few hundred quid to go to UK ( 30 years ago, when a few hundred quid was a lot of money ). Well done to O'Leary on building the most successful Irish business to come out of Ireland. If only our politicians and the regulator and the directors of the banks had a thousanth of the calibre of O'Leary.

The_Thing

Back in the days when Aer Lingus had a monopoly and charged a few hundred quid to go to UK

Japer, flying Aer Lingus was a choice you made. If you thought it was too expensive why did you not take the ferry like the many thousands that did and still do?

dunsandin

Met Michael the other day while getting a coffee. Fair play to him, he's a sound fella, and could teach a lot of other fools a thing or two. Fuel cost fell, that accounted for a lot of the gains, also, in a recession, the REAL businesses like Penneys, Lidl, Aldi, Ryanair, Tesco thrive. The poseurs are shown up, the real deals stand. Money talks, broke walks.:)

Japer

The_Thing wrote: »

Japer, flying Aer Lingus was a choice you made. If you thought it was too expensive why did you not take the ferry like the many thousands that did and still do?

No need to personalise it. I did not even say in my post above that I flew with Aer Lingus in the seventies / early eighties ....my point was that if you wanted to fly ( or had to fly ) then for whatever reason, it was much more expensive in real terms than nowadays. Well done to Ryanair for providing competition to the highly unionised other players, who exploited people for decades.

maninasia

Fitzcaraldo wrote: »

The skeptic in me thinks that the only reason for the dividend payment is that O'Leary has made it clear in recent times that he is looking to step down and loving care for his herd of Angus cattle. In effect he has given himself a golden handshake with a net value of €20m.

If new management follows his methods (given the grooming I think this is likely) there will not be too many more dividends from Ryanair in the years to come.

The large dividend payments have been flagged well in advance. The major shareholders see that Ryanair can't maintain such huge growth (and therefore share price growth) going into the future, so they want payments in cash now. Ryanair have got a lot of cash on their books and cancelled some airplane orders (if I recall correctly). Large profits also very much depend on when airlines count depreciation, when they purchase aircraft, if they have hedged their bets on oil. Overall though Ryanair must have played well to come out with such a profit in the middle of recession.

O'Leary makes 10% of Ryanair profits, or at least he did until recent times. He had a special deal with Tony Ryan, the founder.

The_Thing

No need to personalise it.

Sorry, didn't mean it in a negative way.

RoadKillTs

I've shares in Ryanair so obviously I am happy about the purposed dividend payment but tbh I wish he had used some of the surplus cash to give his staff a bonus.

I'm sure they deserve it

bob the bob

When they put on more flights to more places, people flock to these flights.

This is how they can have massive profit increases year after year.

Poly

Tora Bora wrote: »

If only Mick would retire from Ryanair, and be given the job of restructuring the PS
Lenny's problems would be sorted in 3 months:cool:

It would be a great TV show, imagine "O'Leary sorts sh1t out"

episode 1:
"right senator, you get how much for coming to worK? and speaking of work, WTF do ye do anyways?"

It would have to be on after 9pm of course.

Banned Account

maninasia wrote: »

The large dividend payments have been flagged well in advance. The major shareholders see that Ryanair can't maintain such huge growth (and therefore share price growth) going into the future, so they want payments in cash now. Ryanair have got a lot of cash on their books and cancelled some airplane orders (if I recall correctly). Large profits also very much depend on when airlines count depreciation, when they purchase aircraft, if they have hedged their bets on oil. Overall though Ryanair must have played well to come out with such a profit in the middle of recession.

O'Leary makes 10% of Ryanair profits, or at least he did until recent times. He had a special deal with Tony Ryan, the founder.

There is no doubt that the business is being run well from a profitability perspective. That said, a large part of this years profit was down to falling oil prices. When oil hit $147 per barrell, it knocked seven shades out of the bottom line - I find it strange that they do not employ a more homogenised hedging strategy - allowing the profits of the company to be so dependant on shifts in oil prices is a bit too close to roulette for my liking.

Head The Wall

The_Thing wrote: »

Japer, flying Aer Lingus was a choice you made. If you thought it was too expensive why did you not take the ferry like the many thousands that did and still do?

Ferry goes to around 10 different cities on the west coast of UK. The country is bigger than that you know, no ferry to London etc.