Ryanair reports first ever annual loss

Tenerife_Smurf · 2nd June 2009, 11:07

Ryanair posts an annual loss as fuel bills soared and it wrote down the value of its stake in rival airline Aer Lingus.

The budget airline made a pre-tax loss of £155m for the year to the end of March 2009.

The loss was larger than expected and follows a £418m profit the previous year.

The £200m write down of Ryanair's 30% stake in Aer Lingus as the Irish airline's share price tumbled, was the principal cause of the loss.

Ryanair is the largest shareholder in Aer Lingus and has had two takeover bids for the airline rejected since 2006.

The airline was also hit by rising fuel costs, which jumped to £1.09bn from £687m a year earlier, as oil prices hit record

doreen · 2nd June 2009, 11:36

Okay ... who changed the title ... they haven't lost their stake in Aer Lingus ... it has just been devalued which has added, along with fuel prices, to their first ever accounting loss

ddoyle · 2nd June 2009, 15:46

Mind you they made €28 million on the 50c levy on every passenger last year for wheel chair use by disabled passengers.

barryk · 2nd June 2009, 17:52

They also stand to make a fortune from closing airport check in, charging £10 to check in on-line, on new bookings from May 2009, and print a boarding card using my ink and paper.

Something like 60 million passengers a year at £10 a time that should improve profiits.

Trouble is, love them or hate them, they are usually the cheapest and tend to arrive on time.

The last quote I had Ryanair were £200 cheaper than Thomsonfly

Barryk

DJ Dangerous · 2nd June 2009, 20:47

So without the Aer Lingus devaluation, they'd have made a profit, basically!