Ryanair Holdings PLC said Monday that for the third quarter of fiscal 2021 it swung to a net loss due to the coronavirus pandemic, and that it was guiding for an adjusted loss after tax for the year in the range of 850 million euros to 950 million euros ($1.03 billion to $1.15 billion).
The company said that this was because of the U.K. and European Union lockdown measures and travel restrictions stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, as well as “the timing of the rollout of vaccines across the EU and a very close-in booking curve,” and that visibility in the fourth quarter remained limited.
The budget airline said that for the three months ended Dec. 31 net loss was EUR320.8 million compared with a net profit of EUR87.8 million a year earlier, and a consensus of EUR190.8 million taken from FactSet and based on six analysts’ estimates.
Pretax loss for the period was EUR362.5 million compared with a pretax profit of EUR81.6 million.
Revenue was EUR341.2 million compared with EUR1.91 billion a year earlier. Analysts at FactSet had expected revenue of EUR418.0 million. The company said that ancillary revenue fell 77% to EUR163.9 million in the period.
The company said customers in the period fell to 8 million from 36 million a year earlier.
Load factor–a measure of how full a plane is–stood at 70%, compared with 96% a year before.
The low-cost airline reiterated that it has lowered its traffic forecast for the year to between 26 million and 30 million–from a previous forecast of up to 35 million–due to the pandemic-related restrictions in the U.K. and the EU, and that there is more risk toward the lower end of the range.