Ryanair doubles annual loss forecast on Omicron

Low-cost airline Ryanair said Wednesday that the Omicron coronavirus variant would have a strong impact on its financial performance as it more than doubled the forecast for its annual loss and cut back flights.

The Irish airline now expects a loss of between 250 to 450 million euros ($283-510 million) in its financial year that runs through March 2022, up from an earlier forecast of 100 to 200 million euros.

Ryanair said in a statement that “the Omicron Covid variant and recent government travel restrictions across Europe have notably weakened close-in Christmas and New Year bookings.” 

It added that “this sudden downturn has also caused Ryanair this week to cut its planned January schedule capacity by 33 percent.”

A growing number of European nations are tightening travel restrictions and several are reimposing restrictions on gatherings as the number of Covid-19 infections is rapidly rising.

The airline said that in light of the current uncertainty about the Omicron variant, as well as further developments regarding intra-Europe travel restrictions, it has not made any decisions yet on cutbacks to its February or March schedule.