Ryanair Half-Year Profit Falls 15% on Fuel

Ryanair (NASDAQ: RYAAY), the budget airline group, said today that half-year profit after tax fell 15% to €2.15bn. That compares with €2.54bn a year earlier, even though revenue rose 3% to €10.08bn in the six months to 30 September.

The US-listed shares closed on Friday at $53.72, near the low end of their roughly six-month range.

RYAAY.US

1M 3M 6M 1Y 5Y

Traffic grew 6% to 125.8m passengers, but average fares slipped 4% to €55.70, and operating costs climbed 10% to €7.69bn. Operating profit fell 16% to €2.40bn.

Fuel was the main pressure. Fuel and oil costs rose 15% to €3.40bn as the 20% of jet fuel Ryanair leaves unhedged, meaning not locked in at a price in advance, roughly doubled to about $130 a barrel. The other 80% is hedged at about $67 for FY27.

The pressure builds next year. For its financial year 2028 (FY28), Ryanair has hedged only 25% of its fuel, at about $95 a barrel, and estimates its fuel bill will rise by about €2bn at current forward prices.

Michael O’Leary said this is “still unlikely to provide a full offset” for the estimated €2bn increase in the FY28 fuel bill. He expects jet-fuel prices to stay elevated “well into 2027” without a swift end to the Middle East conflict.

Ryanair is reviewing costs, including airport negotiations, maturing labour agreements that “may require temporary pay freezes”, lower crewing ratios and more use of AI. It has set no savings target.

It gave no profit guidance for FY27, saying it is “too early” to do so. It cut its FY27 traffic target to 214m from 216m, plans over 220m for FY28, and starts an €800m buyback in February 2027.