Ryanair raises profit guidance after Christmas travel boom

Ryanair Holdings Plc said it expects to post a bigger full-year profit following a surge in lucrative last-minute bookings over the Christmas and New Year holiday. The stock surged.

Europe’s biggest discount airline now anticipates earnings for the 12 months through March of between 950 million euros ($1.06 billion) and 1.05 billion euros, and most likely in the middle of that range, according to a statement Friday. It had previously forecast 800 million euros to 900 million euros.

The spate of late bookings helped lift yields, a measure of fares, according to Ryanair, which reports third-quarter results on Feb. 3. Bookings for January through April are also 1% up on this time last year and that should result in slightly better pricing in the fourth quarter, with the full-year passenger tally reaching 154 million, or 1 million more than previously forecast.

“We believe momentum into the summer in a very tight market will be powerful,” Stephen Furlong, an analyst at Davy Stockbrokers in Dublin, said in a note to clients.

Shares of Ryanair traded 8.7% higher at 16.54 euros as of 8:06 a.m. in the Irish capital, where the company is based.

Ryanair has been reining in growth plans for this year after the grounding of Boeing Co.‘s 737 Max jetliner, which had been due to swell capacity. Deliveries were halted worldwide in March after two fatal crashes, meaning the Irish carrier has yet to receive any of the high-density variants it has on order.

Ryanair in November refined its guided earnings range from an earlier 750 million euros to 950 million euros. That’s based on expectations of a “slightly better fare environment than last winter.” It had a profit of 948 million euros in fiscal 2019.

The picture’s not all rosy, with the Austrian Laudamotion unit set to see losses for the year widen to about 90 million euros from a previous estimate of under 80 million euros after lower than expected average Christmas fares amid “intense price competition.”