No-frills airline Ryanair saw its profits drop 8 per cent to €523 million in the year ending March 2014, the airline has announced.
Despite the drop in profits, the first time in five years, passenger traffic grew 3 per cent to 81.7 million.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said the results were “disappointing” and blamed a 4 per cent decline in fares, weaker sterling and higher fuel costs.
“We reacted quickly to this weaker environment last September by lowering fares and improving our customer experience, which caused H2 traffic to grow 4 per cent as load factors rose 1 per cent,” O’Leary said.
“Ancillary revenues grew 17 per cent, much faster than traffic growth, and now accounts for 25 per cent of total revenues.”
Ryanair has this year attempted to change its image to more ‘customer-friendly’. During the year, the airline has introduced measures such as allocated seating and cuts to excess baggage fees. The carrier also started to allow people to bring a small, second carry-on bag.
In April Ryanair announced it was to start working with a GDS system for the first time in 10-years. It has also broadened its distribution by becoming the first low fares airline in Europe to partner with Google’s “Flight Search” function.
O’Leary said: “This partnership enables consumers to easily access and book Ryanair’s lower fares every time they search on Google.
“In April we began distribution on Galileo and Worldspan GDS systems, which allows travel and corporate agents to see and book Ryanair’s low fares.
“We are in talks with other GDS‘s (to broaden our distribution base) and hope to add more before year end. Our new groups and corporate travel service launched in January and take up of these services is growing rapidly.”
Ryanair.com