Ryanair shareholders at its AGM in Dublin approved all resolutions by substantial majorities. The airline also briefed shareholders on the continuing success of its “Always Getting Better” (AGB) customer experience improvement programme, which has already enabled Ryanair to raise its full year traffic forecast to 117m customers, with a full year net profit guidance range of €1,375m to €1,425m.
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Ryanair 737-800s at Boeing Field[/caption]
During the event, Ryanair highlighted the main events from last year, including 18% growth in traffic to 106.4m customers with load factors up from 88% to 93%; the airline opened seven new bases and launched over 100 new routes; approved five year pay and conditions deals agreed with all 84 pilot and cabin crew bases; completed its €800m share buy-back programme; returned the €400 million from the Aer Lingus sale proceeds to shareholders; and increased profit after tax by 43% to €1,242m (before an exceptional gain of €317.5m from the sale of 29.8% shareholding in Aer Lingus).
“Our record traffic and load factor growth demonstrates the continued success of Ryanair’s low fares and our “Always Getting Better” (AGB) customer experience programme,” said Ryanair Chairman, David Bonderman. “As our recent full year guidance confirmed, Ryanair expects average fares to fall by between 10% to 12% in the 6 months to March 2017 (this winter), so there’s never been a better time to book a low fare flight on Ryanair, with even more value for our rapidly growing customer base.”