Ryanair (LON:RYA) give the airline sector a lift today as it reported a swing back into profit at the interim stage and forecast it would make at least €1bn for the full year.
Shares in the Amsterdam-listed airline jumped 7.7% to €12.99 with its rivals also getting a healthy tailwind from the Irish carrier's bullish tone.
Wizz Air (LON:WIZZ) shares were up 7%, easyJet (LON:EZJ) by 3% and British Airways (LON:ICAG) owner IAG by 1.7% as investors looked ahead to a complete recovery from the sector’s Covid nightmare.
Ryanair posted a pre-tax profit of €1.4bn (£1.2bn) in the six months to the end of September following a net loss of €48m in the same period last year.
Full-year profits will be between €1bn and €1.2bn, it said after the traditional winter loss, adding that it did not expect to be affected by the cost-of-living crisis.
Michael O'Leary, chief executive, said he hoped the sector would avoid a repeat of last year's lockdowns caused by the omicron variant, "which damaged last Christmas at such short notice.
“Concerns about the impact of recession and rising consumer price inflation on Ryanair's business model have been greatly exaggerated."
O'Leary said he expects the airline "to grow strongly in a recession as consumers won't stop flying, but rather they will become more price sensitive."
That will mean a fierce battle for passengers with people shopping around for the best deals.
Ryanair said it flew 95mln passengers in its first half, up from 39mln one year earlier.
That was 11% more than the 85.7mln in the same period in 2019 before Covid grounded almost all air travel.
Revenue hit €6.62bn in the six-month period, up from €2.15bn in 2021.
Dublin-based Ryanair added it will increase its seat numbers by 10% this winter and predicted annual passenger numbers would hit 168mln, which would be a new record by some distance.
O’Leary said another Covid outbreak might derail its forecasts, while longer-term it is reliant on Boeing (NYSE:BA) delivering more than 50 new planes by next summer but otherwise he was upbeat about the future.