Ryanair this week became the first major European carrier to report its October-December earnings and its outlook for 2026, providing an upbeat assessment on what lies ahead.
Ryanair this week became the first major European carrier to report its October-December earnings and its outlook for 2026, providing an upbeat assessment on what lies ahead.
Amid continued strong demand for passenger travel and higher fares, Ryanair says of costs: “Unit costs have performed well, and we continue to expect only modest FY26 unit cost inflation as our [Boeing 737 Max 8-200] deliveries, fuel hedging and effective cost control helps offset increased ATC charges, higher environmental costs and the roll-off of last year’s delivery delay compensation.”
Crucially for Ryanair and others, constrained capacity, lower fuel prices and calming inflation in many markets are also boosting profitability projections for the coming 12 months, although caution around geopolitical factors and economic uncertainties looms large.
Last week saw a noteworthy development involving one of Ryanair’s rivals, Wizz Air, which announced it was seeking permission to operate transatlantic flights using its UK unit – initially on a charter basis but with an eye on scheduled services. The carrier is taking A321XLRs, but last year drastically reduced its orders for the variant.
Wizz will report its October-December quarter earnings this week, as will American Airlines, JetBlue Airways and Southwest Airlines in the USA.
Eyes will be on whether the US trio continue the positive noises about the outlook that Alaska Air Group made at the end of last week.
Echoing the optimistic outlooks of executives with Delta Air Lines and United Airlines – both of which previously reported fourth-quarter earnings – Alaska has recorded “several of the highest-booking days” in its history since 1 January, it said last week, suggesting that demand for air travel is strong early in the year.
Delta and United continue to run their own race in the USA, with the latter’s chief executive Scott Kirby saying last week that his carrier is poised to overtake Delta Air Lines as the world’s leading airline by revenue.
Kirby describes the looming departure of Delta president Glen Hauenstein, widely credited as a chief architect of the Atlanta-based carrier’s dominant revenue run over the past 20 years, as a point at which the tables could turn in United’s favour.
But US carriers had more pressing concerns over the weekend and into this week, with thousands of flights cancelled – the highest level since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic – amid snow storms in the country.
On 25 January, for example, about 8,900 US flights were cancelled – or 38% of the country’s total – as of 15:30 on the East Coast, according to operational data tracked by aviation analytics firm Cirium.
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