Irish low-cost airline Ryanair is pushing back its target of 200 million passengers per year. The announcement comes in conjunction with its quarterly report and the company refers to the problems with the Boeing 737 Max aircraft.

Ryanair reported a profit after tax of €88 million in the third quarter of its 2019/2020 financial year, compared with a loss of €66 million in the same reported quarter last year. The airline is maintaining its guidance in line with its recently raised forecast for full-year profit of €950-1.05 billion.

Irish Ryanair is one of the companies affected by the problems with Boeing's 737 Max aircraft model. In the report, Ryanair now announces that no savings will be achieved until the end of 2021. In addition, the goal of reaching 200 million passengers annually is postponed by "at least two years" to 2025 or 2026.

Ryanair's revenue rose 21 percent to 1.9 billion euros in the reported quarter, compared with Bloomberg's analyst estimate of 1.8 billion euros. The number of passengers in the quarter was 35.9 million, compared with expectations of 35.6 million.

The Board of Directors has decided to extend the share buyback program until the end of July. The program is worth EUR 700 million. 

So far in the fourth quarter of the broken financial year, the booking situation has been positive compared to last year. 1 percent more travelers have booked with Ryanair so far in the quarter. The average price picture has also improved "slightly" on the ticket front, the company further writes.

Source: News Agency Direkt