London: Ryanair slashed its losses sharply in the final three months of 2021 but the emergence of the Omicron variant cut into the normally busy winter holiday travel season, the low-cost airline said Monday.
Ryanair said its final quarter of the year had started well, with strong bookings as there was “less confusion”; about the British government’s “absurd ‘traffic light system'”; to rank Covid risks from countries.
Bookings continued to improve in November but “the sudden emergence of the Omicron variant”; and “the media hysteria it generated”; forced European governments to reimpose travel restrictions, Ryanair said.
The measures in the runup to Christmas “significantly weakened peak”; Christmas and New Year bookings and fares, it said. Net losses stood at 96 million euros ($107 million) in the company’s third-quarter, a third of the figure for the same period in 2020.
