Ryanair has recorded a profit after tax of €1.61bn in the year to March 2025, which is an annual drop of 16%.

The Ireland-headquartered budget airline, which is the parent company of Lauda, Malta Air and Buzz, said that this figure was recorded despite traffic increasing by 9% year-on-year to a record 200 million passengers.

However, this follows delays in the delivery of new Boeing aircraft and fare prices dropping by 7% annually.

In the 12 months to March 2025, its revenue increased by 4% to €13.95bn, while its operating costs jumped by 9% to €12.39bn.

During the 2025 financial year, Ryanair purchased and cancelled 7% of its issued share capital and, as a result, has now retired almost 36% of its issued share capital since 2008.

The airline added that it remains committed to shareholder returns and has now approved a follow-on €750m share buyback, which will run over the next six to 12 months.

Looking ahead to the 2026 financial year, Ryanair expects its traffic to grow by 3% to 206 million passengers, due to constrained/delayed Boeing deliveries.

It added that it is expecting to recover some its 7% drop in fares, which should lead to reasonable net profit growth in the year.

However, with the financial year outcome remaining exposed to the risk of tariff wars, macroeconomic shocks, conflict escalations in Ukraine and the Middle East and European air traffic control short staffing, Ryanair said that it is "far too early to provide any meaningful guidance".

Investment director at AJ Bell, Russ Mould, concluded: "Companies often find some extraordinary language to avoid stating the bare facts. Ryanair says consumer spending pressure and a drop-off in online travel agent bookings ‘necessitated repeated price stimulation’. In plain English, it had to cut prices to get bums on seats.

"Further headwinds for Ryanair are the problems at Boeing which are limiting its growth efforts and have forced consistent downgrades to its passenger growth targets. The airline is confident it can catch up on this missed growth but, in the current environment, investors would be forgiven for exercising some healthy scepticism.

"It was not all bad news for Ryanair with its latest results. Profit was towards the higher end of expectations and the company feels sufficiently confident about the outlook to unveil a substantial share buyback."

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