Ryanair has reduced its full-year profit guidance to €510 million ($690 million) from €570 million, after average fare fell 2% in the six months to 30 September.
The Irish budget carrier says the fare drop was due to one-off events such as the timing of Easter, the summer heatwave in northern Europe, French ATC strikes in June, and sterling weakness.
While fares fells, Ryanair says ancillary revenues grew 22% in the financial year's first half, to €713 million, driven by successful roll-out of reserved seating, priority boarding and higher credit and debit card fees.
Operating profit was up 1% at €602 million.
Revenues rose 5% to €3.25 billion, as passenger numbers climbed 2% to 49 million.
Ryanair remains 90% hedged for 2014, at $980 per tonne, and Ryanair says it can take advantage of recent weakness in oil prices and the US dollar to extend 2015 hedging to 60% at around $94 per barrel, which at current market rates should deliver a unit-cost fuel reduction of around 4% in 2015.
Cash reserves at the end of September stood at over €3.5 billion, and Ryanair says it plans to execute at least €150 million-worth of further share buybacks before the end of the financial year.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
