Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Ryanair's full year results investor presentation. As you'll have seen this morning on the ryanair.com website, we've reported a full year profit after tax of EUR 1.61 billion, compared to a prior year profit after tax of EUR 1.92 billion, principally due to traffic growth of 9% to a record 200 million passengers, but a 7% lower fares. The highlight for the last 12 months is notably traffic has grown 9% to a record 200 million passengers. Despite repeated Boeing delivery delays, Ryanair has become the first passenger airline to carry 200 million international passengers in one year. Average fares fell by 7%, and ancillary revenue is, however, has held up well, up 1%. Cost per passenger over the year has been flat, as the cost gap has widened materially over competitor EU airlines.
As at the end of April, we had 181 B737 game changers in our 618 aircraft fleet. We've launched over 160 new routes for summer 2025. Over the last year, we've bought back and canceled over 7% of our issued share capital, and we've reported a final dividend of EUR 0.227 per share, which will be payable in September, subject to AGM approval. Turning to some detail on this, I won't dwell or spend a lot of time on it. I think the key feature of last year's results was the 7% decline in airfares, but this drove strong traffic growth of 9% to just over 200 million passengers. Operating costs, our key metric, were in line with our expectations. They rose 9% to EUR 12.4 billion, as fuel hedge savings offset higher staff and other costs due in part to the Boeing delivery delays.
However, the key metric, which was operating costs, were flat on a per passenger basis. Our FY26 fuel is almost 85% hedged at $76 per barrel, a 4% saving on the $79 per barrel average cost in 2020 in FY25. I am pleased to say we have also moved on recent weakness in the oil markets to hedge 36% of our FY27 oil needs at just under $66 per barrel, which would be a 13% saving on our FY26 hedge rate. We think this hedging and this aggressive hedging helps to de-risk our group from fuel price volatility over the next 12 months. Our balance sheet remains one of the strongest in the industry. We have a BBB plus credit rating. At the 31st of March, the year-end, our gross cash balance was almost $4 billion, but this was somewhat artificially boosted by delayed aircraft CapEx into FY26.
Year-end net cash was EUR 1.3 billion. As you know, we are preparing to repay almost EUR 2.1 billion of maturing bonds over the next 12 months from our own internal cash resources. I think that is a key strength of Ryanair. We are paying down debt to effectively zero over the next two years, while most of our competitors remain exposed to expensive long-term financing and rising aircraft lease costs. Turning briefly to the fleet, as I said, we now have 181 737-8200 game changers in our 618 aircraft fleet. We took delivery of five new aircraft from Boeing during the month of April. This will restrict our FY 2026 growth to just 3%. We expect to carry about 206 million passengers.
We're confident, however, that the remaining 29 game changers in our 210 aircraft order book will deliver well ahead of summer 2026, and this will enable us to catch up with delayed traffic growth into FY2027. Boeing still expects the MAX 10 aircraft to be certified in late 2025, and we continue to plan for the timely delivery of our first 15 MAX 10 aircraft in the spring of 2027, with 300 more of these aircraft, which, remember, offer us 20% more seats but burn 20% less fuel, due for delivery to us by March 2034. We expect European short-haul capacity will remain heavily constrained for the next few years, certainly out to 2030, as many of Europe's Airbus operators are still working through Pratt & Whitney engine repairs. The two big aircraft manufacturers, Airbus and Boeing, are way behind on aircraft deliveries, and EU airline consolidation continues.
These capacity constraints, combined with our very substantial and widening cost advantage, our strong balance sheet, our low-cost aircraft orders, and our industry-leading operational resilience will, we believe, facilitate Ryanair's controlled profitable growth to 300 million passengers per annum by FY34. I want to touch briefly on the ownership and control issue. As you'll be aware, we carried out a review of our ONC restrictions in a manner that continues to ensure our compliance with EU regulations. Following very positive feedback from both regulators and investors, the board resolved in March that it was in the best interests of Ryanair and our shareholders as a whole to discontinue the prohibition on non-EU nationals acquiring ordinary shares with immediate effect. We do continue to apply voting restrictions on non-EU nationals.
Consequently, both EU and non-EU nationals are now free to invest in Ryanair Holdings via ordinary shares listed on Euronext Dublin, our ADRs, and NASDAQ. We want to acknowledge that these changes have encouraged MSCI, as recently as this week, to confirm that Ryanair will now be included in the MSCI World Index at the end of May, an index inclusion we very much welcome. I just want to mention briefly Howard Miller. Howard has chosen not to seek reelection at the upcoming AGM when he will have served nine years as a non-executive director of the board of Ryanair. Howard served as CEO from 1992, CFO from 1992 to 2014, a period of 22 years, and as an NED for the last nine years. I think you could not understate his contribution over that period of time.
Without Howard, Michael, and the contribution they have made since Ryanair first joined the stock market in 1997, Ryanair would not be where it is today. I want to personally thank Howard and Michael for that contribution. Turning to Outlook, we expect FY26 traffic to grow by just 3% to 206 million passengers due to delayed Boeing deliveries. Following a successful year of flat unit costs, we do expect very modest unit cost inflation in FY26, as the delivery of more game changers, strong jet fuel hedging, and cost control across our group airlines help to offset increased route and ATC charges and higher enviro costs. To date, summer 2025 demand is strong, with peak fares trending moderately ahead of prior year. Q1 fares will benefit from having the full Easter holiday in the month of April.
In the prior year, only half of Easter was in April, and therefore a very weak prior year comps. The Q1 fares are on track to finish in mid-19% ahead of Q1 FY2025. The Q1 results, as a result, will be very strong. With limited visibility, we're currently expecting Q2 pricing to recover some, but not all, of the 7% decline we experienced in prior year Q2. The final half-one outcome is, however, heavily dependent on close-in bookings and peak summer yields as we move through the months of June, July, August, and September. As is normal at this time of the year, we have zero H2 visibility. Therefore, while we cautiously expect to recover most, but not all, of last year's 7% fare decline, this should lead to a reasonable net profit growth in FY2026. It's still far too early, however, to provide any meaningful guidance.
The final FY26 outcome remains heavily exposed to adverse external developments, including, as we have recently seen, the risk of tariff wars, the impact of that on macroeconomic shocks, oil prices, conflict escalation in Ukraine and the Middle East, and, of course, European ATC mismanagement and short-staffing during the peak summer season. With that, I am going to hand over to Neil Sorahan, our CFO, Neil for any comments, and then we go to Q&A.
Michael, thank you very much, and good morning, everybody. Welcome to our full year results presentation. Ryanair is the lowest fare, lowest cost EU airline. The key advantage we have is our cost gap between everybody else, and that is widening and will continue to widen over coming years. We're number one for traffic and will grow to 206 million passengers in the coming year FY26. We saw a record increase in our customer satisfaction scores last year to 86% as we continue to deliver on on-time performance and reliability for our customers and for our teams. Our 300 MAX 10 order book will underpin a decade of growth, and this, coupled with our financial strength and low costs, we believe makes us the long-term winner.
Just a snapshot of where we are at the moment: 93 basis, 618 aircraft this summer, which will facilitate the growth to 206 million passengers in the coming financial year. We have 330 aircraft on order, and that will allow for profitable growth to 300 million passengers between now and FY 2034. Key slide, as always, in the deck. As you can see, the cost advantage that we enjoy over our competitors is only getting better. That cost gap is widening. You can see the advantage on such lines as the interest income line, where we are reporting interest income. Our competitors are reporting interest expense, airports, route charges, et cetera. We are beating everybody else. On the results themselves, we saw a 9% increase in traffic to just over 200 million passengers, becoming, as Michael already said, the first European airline ever to carry in excess of 200 million passengers.
Load factors remained flat at 94%. The growth was stimulated by 7% traffic, sorry, 7% lower fares at EUR 46 per passenger. That, coupled with a solid performance in ancillaries, meant that we saw a 4% increase in revenue to just over EUR 13.95 billion. Costs, as expected, rose in line with traffic, up 9% to EUR 12.39 billion. We reported a profit this morning of just over EUR 1.61 billion, while at the upper end of our guidance range of EUR 1.55 billion-EUR 1.61 billion, it is still 16% down on last year. Our balance sheet is rock solid, a fortress balance sheet. We finished the year with just under EUR 4 billion in gross cash, EUR 1.3 billion in net cash.
While that was somewhat flattered by the timing of CapEx into FY2026, it still was a very strong performance after spending EUR 1.6 billion on capital expenditure and returning EUR 1.9 billion to our shareholders, including a EUR 1.5 billion share buyback over the course of the past financial year. With that, I'm going to hand over to Michael to take us through current developments.
Thanks to you. As I said, we are the first EU airline to carry 200 million guests in one year. We are seeing slower FY2026 growth, traffic up 3% to 206 million, due entirely to Boeing delivery delays, but the Boeing delays are improving. We are seeing robust summer 2025 demand across the network. Forward bookings are strong. Pricing is above last year, but not sure yet whether we will recover. We do expect to recover some, but probably not all of last year's 7% fare decline. We are operating in a marketplace in Europe with constrained capacity, and therefore we are engaged in some degree of churn of our own capacity. We are allocating new aircraft and growth to those regions and airports who are cutting taxes and incentivizing growth. Fuel hedges, I think, are going to be a major story for our sector for the next 12 months.
We were 78% hedged in FY25 at $79 a barrel. We are now 84% hedged into FY26 at $76 a barrel. We have taken advantage of recent weaknesses in forward rates to hedge 36% of FY27 at just $66 a barrel. We are pleased this morning to announce a follow-on EUR 750 million share buyback. We expect that will start from May 2025 and will run for up to 12 months. I think the recent board decision to relax the ownership restrictions, which now means that EU and non-EU nationals can buy both Ryanair Ordinaries and ADRs, and has paved the way for inclusion in the MSCI World Index at the end of May, is a very notable development. On Boeing, the situation is getting better. This summer, we will have 618 737s in the fleet, including 181 737-8200 max game changer aircraft.
We have been working with Boeing to accelerate the remaining 29 game changers for summer 2026. We will take a significant number of those aircraft before the end of calendar 2025, so that we have them in place and we can plan with certainty for summer 2026. I'm pleased to say, thanks to the work that Kelly Ortenberg, Stephanie Pope, and their team are doing, the quality and the timeliness of recent deliveries continues to improve. We got all five aircraft in that were due in April, either arrived on time or early. Boeing still expects the MAX 10 certification to take place in late 2025, and we are still planning for our first 15 MAX 10s to arrive in the spring of 2027. That would be a very exciting development. It will be the first of 300 MAX 10 aircraft we expect to take up to March 2034.
Those aircraft have 20% more seats. They burn 20% less fuel, and they will transform Ryanair's cost advantage and leadership over every other airline in Europe. We set out here how we now see the orders will roll in, and as you can see, reasonably controlled growth to 300 million passengers by FY2034. As Neil alluded to, we have strong shareholder returns. We bought back and canceled 77 million in FY2025 at an average price of just over EUR 19 per share. That brings to 36% the issued share capital that we bought back and canceled since 2008. We paid a EUR 400 million dividend in 2024. There is a EUR 480 million dividend likely to be paid in 2025, subject to AGM approval. The follow-on EUR 750 million share buyback starts in May 2025.
We're able to fund this because of the Boeing delivery delays, which means our short-term cash has been boosted. I'll hand back to Neil for the 2026 outlook. Neil.
Thank you, Michael. Just based on what we know at this point in time, we have 618 aircraft in the fleet, so that will enable us to grow now by 3% to 206 million passengers in line with what we guided back with the Q3s, but still slower than we would have hoped prior to then. We are seeing strong summer demand, as Michael has already said, all across our network. Q1, which benefits from a full Easter in April just gone and from weak prior year comps, is going to be a solid quarter for the group. We still do not have huge visibility into Q2 at this point in time, so it will all hinge on the close-in fares and bookings for the all-important Q2.
We would be, at this stage, cautiously expecting that we'll recover most, if not all, and I emphasize not all, of the 7% fare decline that we saw in the prior year FY2025. This, of course, depends on whether there's any economic downturns into the second half of the year and beyond due to tariffs or other macroeconomic shocks. We're not seeing them at the moment, but you can't rule them out, and that could have an adverse impact on demand and fares into the second half of the year. We're only guiding modest unit cost inflation this year. We've good cost control across the business. Our swaps are locked in at attractive levels, but we are seeing double-digit increases in rates for route charges and ATC. We're also into the first year now of no ETS allowances, and we're into the first year of the SAF blend mandates.
We would expect to see modest unit cost inflation over the course of the next 12 months. Looking at all of that, what does it mean? We would expect to see reasonable profit growth over the course of the next year. It's just too early, however, to put numbers on it at this point in time. This, of course, depends on, as I said, no adverse shocks in the system. When you look beyond that, you know we've got the lowest cost of any airline in Europe. The cost gap between us and everybody else is widening. We've got a fortress balance sheet. We're returning funds to our shareholders, and we've got a low-cost order book, which is going to enable Ryanair to grow profitably, we believe, to 300 million passengers over the next 10 years. Thank you.
Michael, Neil, good morning. Starting with your full year results, you reported a PAT of EUR 1.61 billion, down 16%. What were the key drivers?
Yeah, we saw a 9% increase in traffic over the course of the year, despite all of the Boeing delivery delays. This enabled us, as we already said, to become the first European airline to carry in excess of 200 million passengers in a single year. This growth was stimulated by 7% reductions in fares. We did not have a full Easter in Q1. We did not have an Easter in Q4. As we all remember, the OTAs boycotted Ryanair in the spring of last year, which led to some softer close-in pricing into the peak summer. We saw consumers, not an issue now, but in the first half of last year, struggling with higher-for-longer interest rates and inflation measures.
When we turn to the ancillary revenue, they put in a solid performance last year, rising 10% ahead of traffic growth of 9%, potentially just over EUR 4.7 billion. Costs, as previously guided, and we're very pleased about this. We saw our unit costs come in flat on a full-year basis last year.
Have you advanced your fuel hedge cover?
Yes, we have. As you see, we've taken advantage of the recent oil price dips to lock in very significant savings. We're 85% hedged into FY2026 at $76 per barrel, about a 4% saving per barrel compared to our FY2025 hedge. We're now 40% hedged for the first half of FY2027 at about $66 a barrel, about a 13% further fuel cost saving on the prior year.
Moving on to your balance sheet, what are the highlights of Ryanair's strong balance sheet?
Yeah, it's a fortress balance sheet. We've got an industry-leading BBB plus rating from both Fitch and S&P. We finished the year with very strong liquidity. We had gross cash of just under EUR 4 billion and net cash of EUR 1.3 billion, despite EUR 1.6 billion in CapEx and EUR 1.5 billion in share buybacks last year. We also further enhanced our liquidity in March just gone, where we increased our revolving credit facility from EUR 750 million to EUR 1.1 billion and extended it out to 2030. I think uniquely, Ryanair owns all of its aircraft. We've got 590 plus 737s, fully unencumbered at the balance sheet. This puts us in a very unique position. At a time when our competitors are out there raising expensive bonds, raising expensive debt and leases, we're planning to repay our maturing bonds over the next year out of our own cash.
We're reporting net interest income at a time when our competitors are reporting net interest expense.
Do you still plan to pay down the EUR 850 million bond maturing in September with cash?
Yes, we do. The principal reason is that's why we've been building up cash over the last 12 months. The cost to refinance those bonds at the moment, even for Ryanair with our balance sheet, would be about 3.5%, so a significant increase in financing costs. We also, therefore, plan to repay the EUR 1.2 billion bond that's due in May 2026 from our own cash resources, unless there's a big fall in interest rates between now and May 2026.
What is FY26 CapEx guidance?
Yeah, as we already said, last year's CapEx was somewhat flattered by the timing of aircraft deliveries, so that now moves into FY26. We are looking at a number in and around EUR 2 billion. It could be a bit more than that. It very much depends on the timing of aircraft deliveries. It depends on whether we make some moves in relation to engine shops or indeed adding additional spares into the fleet over the coming months. The number may move slightly, but at the moment, we are looking at EUR 2 billion, possibly a bit above that.
Moving on to shareholder returns. You announced a follow-on EUR 750 million buyback this morning. Why?
Firstly, we have more cash on the balance sheet at year-end than we expected, primarily due to the 12-month delay in the delivery of Boeing aircraft. We will start that buyback later this week. It is likely to run for about 12 months, so it will probably run out to about April of 2026. I think what is important is that when it is completed, Ryanair will have returned more than EUR 10 billion, including dividends to shareholders.
When is the next ordinary dividend?
Yeah, having paid an interim dividend in February just gone of about EUR 240 million, we're now looking at a 22.7% per share, EUR 240 million dividend after the AGM, subject to shareholder approval. Of course, based on the EUR 1.61 billion profitability today and our 25% payout ratio, we would anticipate somewhere in the region of about $400 million being paid out over the course of the next 12 months or so.
Shifting to fleet and growth, what is the latest update on game changer deliveries?
We got five scheduled deliveries during the month of April. That brings us up to 181 game changers in the fleet at the end of April, out of a total fleet of 618 aircraft for the summer of 2025. That certainty, however, does mean we can plan for summer 2025 now without the constant chopping and changing of schedules we suffered in summer 2024 due to the Boeing delivery delays. The quality and the timeliness of Boeing's production is improving. All five April deliveries were either on time or early. We are growing increasingly confident that the last 29 game changers will take delivery of those well in advance of summer 2026.
In fact, we expect to take the majority of them before the end of this calendar year, before December, working closely with Boeing so that we can be absolutely certain we have that capacity, which we will need to recover that growth into summer 2026, FY2027.
Is there any update on MAX 10 certification?
There's no real change. Boeing continues to expect certification somewhere towards the back end of this calendar year, 2025. We then expect them to start producing the aircraft very soon thereafter. That gives us confidence, and we're planning on the basis that we'll receive the first 15 aircraft as contracted before the summer of 2027.
What is your view on inter-European capacity over the next few years?
We think capacity will certainly short-hold capacity will continue to be heavily constrained out to 2030 due to the Pratt & Whitney engine repairs on the Airbus fleet, which is the predominant aircraft in Europe, manufacturer delivery delays from Airbus and Boeing that are running years behind their delivery, the possibility of tariffs, but also M&A. Ryanair itself is slowing down our growth because of Boeing delivery delays. We'll only grow by 3% this year, which will be our slowest rate of growth in many, many years. Airline consolidation is continuing. ITA has now been acquired by Lufthansa, or at least a significant as control of ITA. TAP, we expect, will be the next legacy airline to get involved in M&A.
You mentioned Ryanair has only grown 3% this year. Where is this capacity being allocated?
Yeah, we've scarce capacity, as you said, only 3% growth. We are rewarding regions and airports where they are removing the likes of aviation taxes or stimulating growth deals with Ryanair over the course of the next number of years. I would point to the likes of regional Italy into Sweden over into Hungary, and indeed some of the Polish airports where we are growing on the back of the initiatives that they have taken. We will hopefully catch up some of the growth that we have lost this year with the 210 game changers in the fleet. It is interesting this summer we have only got 160 new routes and no new bases. I would hope as we get to 215 million passengers in FY2027, we recover some more of the opportunities that are available to us.
On tariffs, what impact will tariffs have on Ryanair's aircraft deliveries?
We don't think it'll have much impact, but it's too soon to call. We don't know yet whether they'll happen or not. We welcome the 90-day pause period, which runs to the end of July. Clearly, the experience with the Chinese trade deal recently announced is the threat of tariffs is hopefully receding. Clearly, Europe and the U.S. need to do a deal on trade. We would continue to call for the 1979 civil aircraft agreement, which exempts all civil aircraft and parts and SIMs from tariffs, will be respected or incorporated in any tariffs. It's to the benefit of U.S. manufacturing, Boeing, and European manufacturing, Airbus. Really, nobody, I think none of the manufacturers want to get involved in an aircraft tariff war between the U.S. and Europe. We would call for the 1979 agreement to remain in place.
Will Ryanair cancel Boeing orders if tariffs are applied?
Look, we have to reserve our right to cancel if we saw a significant increase in the cost of our aircraft. As things stand, we are very much off the field. We have got an agreed fixed price with Boeing. It is really more of a Boeing supplier issue than it is a Ryanair issue. That said, we will happily work with any of our suppliers to help them reduce the impact of tariffs on their business as they move forward. I think we have to be cognizant of the fact that we do have a 300 aircraft order in place with Boeing. Our working assumption and our plans at this point in time is that we will exercise the 150 options that we already have left remaining.
If we were to see Airbus aircraft, if we were to see COMAC aircraft coming in significantly cheaper than Boeing, then we would have to look at all the options available to us. Hopefully, tariffs will not come to pass.
Moving on to ownership and control. You lifted the prohibition on EU nationals buying ordinary shares in March. Is there any update on index inclusion?
Clearly, there is. MSCI announced last week that Ryanair were going to be included in the index, in their world index at the end of May. We welcome that inclusion. We think that will be the first of a number of index inclusions that Ryanair will qualify over the next six months. We do believe we meet the criteria for index inclusion in other indices, but it is not our call. We are working with other indexes to ensure that Ryanair Holdings is included in their index, hopefully before the end of this year. Let's see.
On ESG, what are Ryanair's ESG highlights?
Yeah, it was another good year. We continued to execute on the plan. We took in 30 more game changers, 4% more seats, 16% less fuel and CO2. We accelerated the retrofit of Scimitar winglets onto our older NG aircraft. Again, another 1.5% fuel burn saving and 6% quieter. All of that helped us retain our industry-leading ESG ratings. We saw the likes of the CDP A minus, MSCI A rating. For the third year in a row, we were rated number one large-cap airline by Sustainalytics. We were also pleased that back in the autumn, the science-based target initiative SBTi validated our 2031 midterm targets of significantly reducing CO2 per passenger kilometer to 50 grams of CO2, which is a 27% reduction. We will continue to execute on these credentials with another 29 aircraft coming into the fleet over the next number of months.
Moving on to outlook. How are summer 2025 bookings and fares tracking?
We're seeing robust summer 2025 or peak summer 2025 demand across the network. Bookings currently for the remainder of the summer running about 1% ahead of prior year. Now we're balancing that by maybe closing off some cheap seat availability. Q1 fares have undoubtedly been boosted, though, by having the full two halves of Easter in the month of April and weak prior year comps. I think we will report strong Q1 results, I think, in late July or early August. I would caution everybody that just Q1 will be slightly distorted by the weak prior year comps. Q2, we still have limited visibility. The outcome for both Q2 and H1 heavily depends on the strength of close-in bookings as we move through June, July, August, and into September.
At the moment, I think we would be cautiously optimistic that we're going to enjoy a strong summer 2025 trading period.
Lastly, what is the group's FY26 outlook?
It is a bit too early to give profit after tax guidance at this point in time. As Michael said, we still do not have visibility on the close-in Q2 bookings and fares. We have almost no visibility, which is the case at this time of year every year in relation to the second half of the year. Looking at what we do know, we have 618 aircraft, which will facilitate 3% traffic growth to 206 million passengers this year. We would expect just modest unit cost inflation as we see our strong fuel hedges help offset increases in route charges and environmental taxes coming in over the course of the next year. Bookings, as Michael said, are robust into the peak summer period, and fares are running modestly ahead of last year.
We would expect reasonable profit after tax profit growth this year, but we just can't put numbers on it. It's way too early for that at this point in time. The final outcome is going to be very much dependent on no economic or geopolitical shocks over the course of the balance of the year. Beyond that, we're looking at more returns to our shareholders with the EUR 750 million buyback. We've got an ever-widening cost advantage over everybody else and a 300 aircraft order book, which will enable us to grow profitably to 300 million passengers over the next decade.
We have an extensive roadshow. We have over 10 teams on the road for the next week running through Ireland, the U.K., Europe, North America, East Coast, West Coast, Canada. If any of you would like a meeting with Ryanair, just ask your broker or contact us through Jamie here in the IR team in Ryanair. We'd be happy to set it up and give you an in-depth briefing on what we hope will be an exciting period of growth, an exciting period of profitable growth from Ryanair between now and 2034. Thank you very much.