Saturday June 27, 07:46 PM
Ryanair to order up to 300 new planes by year-end: O'Leary
BERLIN (AFP) - Irish low-cost airline Ryanair (Dublin: RY4.IR - news) is to order or take firm options on up to 300 new aircraft from Boeing (NYSE: BA - news) or Airbus (Paris: NL0000235190 - news) by the end of the year, its boss Michael O'Leary said in an interview to be published Monday.
He told German weekly magazine Der Spiegel that Ryanair, which announced a net loss earlier this month, wanted to double its operating profit this year.
Saying that cut-price operators always benefited from a recession, in aviation or trade, O'Leary said Ryanair would be seeking to take advantage of low prices from manufacturers.
"That is why we want to order from Boeing or Airbus, or take firm options on, up to 300 new planes by the end of the year," he said.
Ryanair, which currently operates some 190 aircraft, all Boeing 737s, will be carrying up to 150 million passengers a year by 2017, compared with 58.5 million last year, O'Leary predicted.
The flamboyant airline boss also told Der Spiegel that recent remarks expressing interest in acquiring German flag-carrier Lufthansa (Xetra: 823212 - news) were not a joke, but gave no details.
On June 2 Ryanair reported an annual net loss of 169 million euros (239 million dollars) that it blamed on high fuel costs and a large writedown on its stake in Aer Lingus (LSE: AERL.L - news) .
The loss, suffered in the 12 months to the end of March, compared with net profit of 390.71 million euros in the group's previous financial year.
It predicted it would bounce back into the black in the current financial year with net profits of 200-300 million euros thanks to lower fuel costs.
Last week Ryanair said it would cut 650 more jobs in Ireland, blaming the move on government hikes in taxes amid a deep recession in the eurozone member nation.
And on Tuesday it said was freezing the expansion of bases in Britain in protest at government tax measures and high charges levied by airport operator BAA.
"Ryanair will switch its growth to other EU countries where low cost airports are growing and where governments are welcoming tourists not taxing them," O'Leary said.
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