Ryanair made a quarterly loss of €19.6 million, to December 2018, partially explained by downward pressure on ticket prices due to strong competition in the European market.
To the delight of unions, the current chief executive, Michael O'Leary, is leaving day-to-day management and will be heading a new group structure as its CEO.
A holding company is being created, headed by Michael O'Leary who will be dealing with overall strategy, not PR and union disputes, thankfully.
O'Leary, who has signed a new five-year contract, will "focus on group development," with missions such as cost reductions, investment projects, aircraft acquisitions and mergers and acquisitions. The 57-year-old businessman has been at the Irish airline since 1994.
Ryanair's current non-executive chairman, David Bonderman, will be leaving the company. Bonderman has suffered heavy criticism by workers and shareholders for the past year and will leave after the September 2020 general assembly, to be replaced by Stan McCarthy who has works at the company since May 2017.
In a statement today, Ryanair highlights the increase in fuel costs, personnel costs and costs related to fight cancellations and the compensation of passengers.
In the same period last year, the company had a profit of €105 million. The full year profit has been downgraded to a mere €1.1 billion, €100 million less than had been announced.
For Michel O'Leary, the loss is "disappointing" but argues that this means that customers are benefiting from "historically low" prices, which in turn is positive for "current and future traffic growth."
According to the Irish carrier, this scenario of excess supply and low tariffs will lead to further consolidation of the sector, with more competitors closing or being bought.
The company also notes that the risk of a ‘hard Brexit’ remains high, while saying it has taken "all necessary measures" to reduce any negative impacts.
