Stocks fall on lower prices, lower quarterly earnings

Ryanair shares fell on Monday after the company said its quarterly after-tax profit fell 46% and that prices would be lower than expected in the summer months.

At 8:57 a.m. London time, Ryanair shares were down 12.2%.

the Budget airline said Profit after tax in the three months to the end of June – Ryanair’s first quarter – was 360 million euros ($392 million). That compared with 663 million euros in the same period last year, the company said.

Ryanair cited lower than expected prices and the Easter holiday season falling in the previous quarter as reasons for the drop in profits.

It comes despite a 10% increase in passenger traffic to 55.5 million during the quarter, Ryanair said on Monday. The airline said it was operating its “biggest ever schedule” this summer, with more than 200 new routes and five new bases.

However, Ryanair Group Chief Executive Michael O’Reilly said in a statement that prices were expected to be lower than expected over the next three months.

“While demand is strong in the second quarter, prices remain lower than we expected, and we now expect second quarter prices to be significantly lower than last summer (previously expected to be flat or modestly higher),” he said.

O’Reilly added that it was too early to make predictions about the rest of the fiscal year.

“As is usual at this time of year, we have little visibility into Q3 and Q4, although Q4 will not benefit from last year’s early Easter. It is too early to provide meaningful guidance on net profit for FY25, although we hope to be able to do so in the first half results in November,” he said.

Other European airlines followed Ryanair lower on Monday, with low-cost carrier EasyJet down more than 6%, Jet2 down 4% and Hungarian carrier Wizz Air down more than 6%.