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Ryanair has warned that its growth will slow this year because of delayed deliveries of Boeing aircraft, as it reported a fall in profits as a result of lower ticket prices last year.
Europe’s largest low-cost airline on Monday forecast that passenger numbers would increase 3 per cent to 203mn by March 2026, well behind its original 215mn target, which it has repeatedly lowered.
Despite the challenges, chief executive Michael O’Leary is closing in on share options worth about €100mn if the airline’s share price hits €21 for 28 days.
Shares have staged a recent rally and have been above €21 since May 2. Shares rose 3 per cent to €23 on Monday morning.
O’Leary blamed problems at Boeing for the slower growth, and said Ryanair had received 29 fewer aircraft than planned. But he said the airline was “working closely with the US manufacturer to accelerate deliveries”.
Ryanair, Boeing’s largest customer in Europe, has endured repeated delays to its ambitious growth plans because of the crisis at the US manufacturer, which has suffered a damaging strike and has had to slow production lines to improve manufacturing processes.
However, O’Leary said he was “increasingly confident” that Boeing would deliver the remaining 29 short-haul 737-8 aircraft “well ahead” of summer 2026, allowing Ryanair to “catch up” on the missed growth. The airline eventually plans to carry 300mn people a year by 2034.
“I think Boeing is really getting to the bottom of their issues,” O’Leary said.
Still, the impact of trade tensions between the US and its major partners is hanging over the aerospace industry. Brussels plans to impose tariffs on Boeing aircraft as part of proposals for further retaliation if trade talks with Washington fail, the Financial Times reported earlier this month.
O’Leary said Ryanair was locked in “debate” with Boeing over which side would pick up the cost of the tariffs.
“Ryanair’s position is that we have a fixed price agreement with Boeing on our aircraft, and therefore any tariffs would be for Boeing. I am sure Boeing would have a slightly different view,” he said.
One option that Ryanair and other European airlines were considering was to take deliveries from Boeing through their non-EU subsidiaries, in the UK or Switzerland, to try to avoid tariffs, he added.
Ryanair reported profit after tax of €1.6bn for the 12 months to March 2025, a 16 per cent fall on the previous year but at the higher end of analysts’ expectations.
The airline put the decline down to a 7 per cent fall in average air fares because of a slowdown in bookings from online travel agents. It also cited “consumer spending pressure” and the busy Easter period falling after the end of its 2025 fiscal year.
Many large online travel agents abruptly decided to stop selling Ryanair flights at the end of 2023, following years of tensions and legal disputes. Ryanair has since signed deals to sell its flights through many of the agents.
O’Leary said the airline had seen “robust” demand for travel this summer and that the outlook was “strong”, with ticket prices trending higher than last year.
Lower oil prices should boost Ryanair’s results over the next two years, he added.
The airline announced a €750mn share buyback on Monday.
