Ryanair in rude good health with €3.15bn on the books

The airline lost €815 million in the year to the end of March but bookings have rocketed in anticipation of an easing of travel restrictions, most of its fleet is free of debt, and last Tuesday it engaged in a €1.2 billion bond sale

Michael O’Leary, the Ryanair chief executive, urged governments across Europe to scrap many of the Covid-19 travel restrictions. Picture: Shutterstock

Michael O’Leary’s assertion on Monday that a recovery in aviation was already under way seemed almost immediately wide of the mark when Aer Lingus announced the permanent closure of its Shannon Airport cabin crew base the following day.

The Ryanair chief executive’s comments weren’t without any basis, though, given the 1.5 million customer bookings that were made with the airline the week before last. To underline the dramatic uptick in demand, O’Leary said bookings had ...