Loss of Laudamotion to be 150 million euros this year!

Ryanair on Monday said it expected Austrian holiday airline Laudamotion, which it agreed to buy earlier this year, to post annual losses of 150 million euros (£133.92 million), up from an earlier estimate of 100 million

The Irish airline, which said it plans to increase its stake in Laudamotion to 75 percent from 25 percent in the coming weeks after securing regulatory approval, blamed the higher loss on factors including lower-than-expected summer fares due to the late release of Laudamotion schedules this summer.

“Next year it will get its schedules on sale much earlier, so it won’t have the issues with last minute discounting,” Chief Financial Officer Neil Sorohan told Reuters in an interview. “We will help it out with its fuel hedging and I would expect it to break even towards the back end of year 3.

Sorohan said Ryanair would consider other acquisition opportunities, but said Ryanair’s key growth would be through organic growth.

Laudamotion also faces “substantial cost headwinds” in fuel as it does not hedge, Ryanair said in a statement of its financial results for the three months to June 30.

Source: Reuters