Ryanair Q1 Profit, Revenue Climb - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Low fare airline Ryanair Holdings Plc. (RYA.L, RYAAY) Monday said its first-quarter profit climbed to 245 million euros from 197 million euros, as traffic grew 16 percent due to stronger load factors.

Basic earnings per share grew to 17.90 euro cents from 14.22 euro cents.

Revenue improved 10 percent to 1.653 billion euros from 1.496 billion euros.

Average fare for the quarter fell 4 percent to 45 euros, due to the timing of Easter, weaker April yields and lower checked bag penetration as more families and business customers enjoy discounts on their luggage or benefit from the company's free 2nd carry-on bag policy.

The airline said it would continue to oppose the UK CMA's 2013 divestment ruling, which was based on the invented theory that no other airline would bid for Aer Lingus while Ryanair was a minority shareholder.

Based on the quarterly performance and reasonable visibility into the second quarter, the firm now believes that average fares for the first half will be broadly flat, compared to the previous guidance of 0 to -2 percent.

Looking ahead, Ryanair's Michael O'Leary said, "We think it is too early in the year to alter our full year profit guidance, although the slightly better H1 yields will push it towards the upper end of our previously guided range of €940m to €970m net profit."

"We caution however that this guidance, which is 12% ahead of last year's profit, is heavily reliant on the final outturn of H2 fares over which we currently have almost zero visibility," he added.