Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Neil Sorahan, Ryanair's Group CFO, discussed the airline's Q1 FY27 results, attributing a 34% profit fall to lower fares and higher unhedged fuel costs. He detailed a strong balance sheet with 620 unencumbered Boeing 737s, no debt, and over €2.8 billion in cash. Sorahan outlined funding priorities including Max 10 pre-delivery payments, engine shop capex, dividends, and a €750 million buyback. He confirmed Max 10 certification expected in late 2026, with first deliveries in spring 2027. He noted constrained European capacity due to OEM and engine issues, and highlighted growth in low-cost regions like Slovakia. Sorahan reaffirmed FY27 passenger target of 216 million, but declined to give full-year profit guidance due to lack of visibility.
Key takeaways
Q1 profit fell 34% to €538 million, with fares down 6% and unhedged fuel costs doubling to $150 per barrel.
FY27 jet fuel is 80% hedged at $67 per barrel; FY28 is 15% hedged at $85 per barrel.
Max 10 certification expected September-October 2026, with first 15 deliveries in spring 2027.
FY27 capex guidance is approximately €2 billion, subject to engine shop timing.
Final dividend of 19.5 cents per share payable in September, subject to AGM approval.
Yeah, as always, a number of moving parts in there. Firstly, traffic performed well, rising 6% thanks to the extra game changers in the fleet. Fares, however, were down 6%. Some of that we would credit to the timing of Easter. We had a full Easter in the first quarter last year. Half of Easter fell into the fourth quarter of the year just gone. So we didn't have the full benefit there. But importantly, we saw some consumer hesitancy in relation to the Middle East war that led to more price stimulation and closer in booking. So fares are down 6% as a result of that. Similarly, the Middle East had an impact on the price of our unhedged fuel. We saw the cost of our 20% unhedged fuel spike; it doubled to $150 a barrel. Ancillaries, however, put in another solid performance, rising 5% to 1.47 billion or broadly flat on a per passenger basis at 24 per passenger.
So, as we've said, FY27 jet fuel is 80% hedged at $67 a barrel. We've now hedged 15% of FY28 at $85 a barrel. FY27 OPEX is 90% hedged at $1.15 to the euro and H1 of FY28 is 30% hedged at $1.20 to the euro. Moving to the balance sheet. Ryanair's balance sheet continues to be industry leading. What would he call it? Yeah, it's a fortress balance sheet. We've over 620 fully unencumbered Boeing 737s on the balance sheet which is quite unique for an airline. We're debt free, having paid off our 1.2 billion remaining bond in May just gone. And we've got very strong investment grade ratings, triple B+ from both Fitch and S&P. Liquidity strong. We finished the quarter at the end of June with over 2.8 billion in cash. And to put that in context, that was after paying down 1.3 billion in debt, half a billion in capex. And then that liquidity is further supplemented by our revolving credit facility. We have a 1.1 billion RCF, which is substantially undrawn. So this is a huge competitive advantage for Ryanair. Our competitors are taking on expensive long-term debt. They're taking on expensive leases. And importantly, they don't have the hedge lines to hedge out their fuel and their dollar. So that's adding to their burdens over the next number of years.
Well, firstly is to fund the Max 10 introduction and the pre-delivery payments on that order book. We're beginning to fund the two MRO engine shop capex. We also need to fund the balance of our dividends as another interim final dividend payable in September and complete the 750 million share buyback. Thereafter, we want to rebuild group's gross cash to four billion euros and anything surplus to that will be returned to shareholders via dividends and buybacks.
Well, thanks to the strength of the balance sheet and our strong investment grades, we can and we'll continue to be opportunistic in what we do. I mean, it'll ultimately boil down to what's the lowest cost of finance for Ryanair. At the moment it's cash, but I would expect over the next number of years we'll probably go back to the debt markets, whether it's the banks or the bonds. So likely a combination of cash and debt.
Yeah, it's fairly well hedged. If you look at the 150 firm orders that we have, we're now 60% euro-dollar hedging in place at just over 1.23 on the euro-dollar. So, we're locking in very good levels on what was already a keenly priced order book from Boeing.
Sorahan, N. (2026, July 21). Ryanair results April to June quarter 2027 Q&A https://youtu.be/ICllKXylIiQ [Interview transcript]. Eoghan Corry. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1119715/
MLA
Neil Sorahan. "Ryanair results April to June quarter 2027 Q&A https://youtu.be/ICllKXylIiQ." Eoghan Corry, 21 Jul. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1119715/.
BibTeX
@misc{sorahan2026_1119715,
author = {Neil Sorahan},
title = {Ryanair results April to June quarter 2027 Q\&A https://youtu.be/ICllKXylIiQ},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, Eoghan Corry. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {jul},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1119715/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
