Ryanair posts first loss in 20 years, eyes Lufthansa

Ryanair posted its first full-year loss in two decades and disappointed investors with its outlook yesterday, despite the Irish carrier being one of the few airlines forecasting a profitable year ahead. Before booking the loss, Ryanair's adjusted full-year net profit of €105 million (Dh547.12m) came in well ahead of expectations and it said it planned to at least double that this financial year. Europe's biggest low-cost carrier wrote €222.5m off its near 30 per cent stake in Irish airline Aer Lingus, resulting in a net loss of €169.2m. While rivals shrink in the face of falling demand, Ryanair is hoping to mop up business from cost-conscious travellers during the global recession, and its chief executive said it was even casting the slide rule over Deutsche Lufthansa. "We are having a serious look at Lufthansa. We could almost buy it for cash," Michael O'Leary said. "We are not planning any bids for Lufthansa in the foreseeable future but it is the only one of the other three large airlines that we would be interested in." Ryanair increased its passenger numbers by 15 per cent in 2008-09 to 58.5 million and plans to grow that further to 67 million this year by cutting average fares by between 15 to 20 per cent, it said. While Aer Lingus has repeatedly warned in recent months of risks to its long-term viability, Ryanair said its €2.3bn cash pile was still rising. "All of our major competitors have reported material reductions in short-haul capacity and traffic," O'Leary said. "Ryanair will continue to lower fares to stimulate traffic growth, maintain high load factors and win more short-haul traffic from our high fare competitors." Keep up with the latest business news from the region with the daily Emirates Business 24|7 newsletter. To subscribe to the newsletter, please click here .