Ryanair set fair on record profits as passengers shrug off scandal

Boss Michael O'Leary brushes aside critics in bumptious half-year results statement – because he can

Michael O'Leary has the laugh as Ryanair's latest results show (Getty)

Crisis? What Crisis?

If you thought the flight cancellation scandal at Ryanair would see Michael O’Leary’s house of cards falling over, think again.

Sure, it hasn’t been a lot of fun for the bumptious CEO of late. His chief operating officer Michael Hickey departed after the company was forced to cancel thousands of flights.

He had to kick €100m (£88m) over to the company’s pilots to get them to stick around and stave off yet more cancellations.

He wrote them the closest thing to a grovelling apology you’ll ever get from him after making disparaging comments about people who fly planes at the company’s AGM (he said they were directed at those working for competitor airlines).

He even had to play nice with the Civil Aviation Authority.

This morning proved that it was all so much window-dressing. Before all this blew up, investors were told they should expect the airline to produce record profits of somewhere between €1.4bn (£1.23) and €1.45bn after tax for the 2017/2018 financial year. That forecast remains unchanged.

During the six months to 30 September – when most of the company’s money is made – Ryanair recorded an 11 per cent rise in post-tax earnings to €1.29bn.

The swathe of negative media reports, outraged passengers telling reporters how they were left tearing their hair out, the rumblings of discontent among staff? It had almost no impact where it counts. People are still flying Ryanair in large numbers. The airline is still turning in huge profits.

The tone of Mr O’Leary’s statements tells you all you need to know about what will mean in practice and what we can expect from Ryanair.

“While we deeply regret these flight cancellations and winter schedule changes, and the disruption they caused to some 700,000 [0.5 per cent] of our 129 million customers, we have worked hard to re-accommodate or refund all affected customer requests within 18 days of notifying them. The overwhelming majority have chosen re-accommodation on alternative Ryanair flights.”

So ya boo sucks to you, critics.

“I’m sorry that our people have had to listen to misinformation about Ryanair promoted by competitor pilot unions, however we have been here before, and we will be again. We understand that the reason they wish to denigrate Ryanair is because their airlines cannot compete with us.”

So ya boo sucks to you, competitors.

“As usual when these union airlines fail, such as Monarch, Air Berlin and Alitalia in recent months, their pilots all come to Ryanair seeking jobs that pay up to €175,000 (£154,000) per annum, deliver a double bank holiday weekend every week, with the best promotions record and, the best job security in Europe.”

So ya boo sucks to you unions.

Ryanair is gong to fly on, and while it might be a bit nicer to its pilots in future, Ryanair is going to carry on doing things the way Mr O’Leary wants them done because it can.

It’s hard to imagine how the company could have handled the cancellation situation worse. Yet the passengers keep on coming and the profits keep on flowing. Mr O’Leary now knows he basically has a licence to do whatever he wants. He doesn’t have to be any nicer to them and, really, you can hardly now blame him if he decides to make use of that in future.

Anyone up for a charge for using the loo mid-flight?