Why the Ryanair CEO Thinks He Has This Pandemic Mess All Worked Out

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary has a plan, but it's got a lot of moving parts. Staying true to the airline's culture of promising low fares, the airline boss is pinning his hopes on being able to offer the cheapest tickets across Europe to successfully emerge from the crisis over the coming years. Achieving those new low fares won't come easy though, he admitted during a first-quarter results update, at which he revealed the airline recorded a $216 million loss for the three months up to June 30, down from a profit of $284 million in the prior year's quarter. Meanwhile, revenue fell by 95 percent for the three months, from $2.5 billion last year to $146 million this year. This isn't surprising considering traffic plummeted 99 percent, falling to 500,000 passengers from 42 million passengers in the prior year's quarter. Securing the Future The figures aren't reassuring, and O'Leary said he's loathe to predict any short-term numbers due to second waves of the virus now appearing.