LONDON — Low-cost
airline Ryanair said Wednesday that the Omicron coronavirus variant would have a strong
impact on its financial performance as it more than doubled the forecast for
its annual loss and cut back flights.
اضافة اعلان
The Irish airline now expects a loss of
between 250 to 450 million euros ($283-510 million) in its financial year that
runs through March 2022, up from an earlier forecast of 100 to 200 million
euros.
Ryanair said in a statement that "the
Omicron COVID variant and recent government travel restrictions across Europe
have notably weakened close-in Christmas and New Year bookings."
It added that "this sudden downturn has
also caused Ryanair this week to cut its planned January schedule capacity by
33 percent."
A growing number of
European nations are
tightening travel restrictions and several are re-imposing restrictions on
gatherings as the number of COVID-19 infections is rapidly rising.
The airline said that in light of the
current uncertainty about the Omicron variant, as well as further developments
regarding intra-Europe travel restrictions, it has not made any decisions yet
on cutbacks to its February or March schedule.
Ryanair said its new loss forecast was very
sensitive to pandemic developments and that it hoped to have more clarity about
the impact of Omicron on travel within Europe by the time it presents its third
quarter results on January 31.
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