Ryanair was devalued by over €1 billion yesterday as its shares dipped by 12% after its second profit warning in 2 months.
The airline published results unveiling revenues to September 30th to the first of its financial year up 5% at €3.25 billion and profits after tax up 1% at €602 million from €596 million during the same period last year.
The results statement, however, included a warning that low air fares will hit its full-year profits, and it now expects the “out-turn to be between €500 million and €520 million due entirely to this lower fare environment”.
This is around 20% lower than the €570 million to €600 million full-year profit it expected in the warning from 2 months ago.
The company also announced yesterday that it is to introduce fully allocated seating on all of its flights from February 1st 2014, as part of an ongoing drive to reverse its reputation for poor customer experience.
Chief executive Michael O'Leary said sales of allocated seating would cancel out any losses in ancillary revenues from the recently announced reduction of its punitive fines on passengers for not printing boarding passes or making changes to minor booking errors.
The company will also overhaul its website by the end of this month reducing the number of clicks it takes to book a flight from 17 to five and getting rid of a time-intensive security step.
