Ryanair shares tumble 17.3% as budget airline reports 46% fall in quarterly profit, sees lower fares

Ryanair shares fell Monday after the company said its quarterly profit after tax had fallen 46% and fares will be lower than expected in the summer months.

At 2:38 p.m. London time, Ryanair shares were down 17.3%, extending losses recorded earlier in the day.

The budget airline said that profit after tax in the three months to the end of June — Ryanair's first quarter — came in at 360 million euros ($392 million). That's compared with 663 million euros over the same period a year ago, the company said.

Ryanair cited weaker-than-anticipated fares and the Easter season falling into the previous quarter as reasons for the drop in profit.

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

However, Ryanair Group CEO Michael O'Leary said in a statement that fares were expected to be lower than expected over the next three months.

"While Q2 demand is strong, pricing remains softer than we expected, and we now expect Q2 fares to be materially lower than last summer (previously expected to be flat to modestly up)," he said.

O'Leary added it was too early to make forecasts about the rest of the financial year.

"As is normal at this time of year, we have almost zero Q3 and Q4 visibility, although Q4 will not benefit from last year's early Easter. It is too early to provide meaningful FY25 PAT guidance, although we hope to be able to do so at our H1 results in Nov," he said.

Other European airlines followed Ryanair lower on Monday, with fellow low-cost airline EasyJet shedding over 6%, while Jet2 fell 4% and Hungarian airline Wizz Air slid over 6%.