Ryanair announced €185 million loss in Q2, Wizz Air lost €108 million but launched 200 new routes

Ryanair (FR/RYR), the Irish budget airline, has announced a loss of €185m for Quarter 2 of 2020.

Whilst massive, the loss is unsprising as the quarter included an almost total grounding of air traffic due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

The airline says that traffic fell 99% during the period.

Ryanair says that while traffic is recovering, it is now operating 40% of its schedule.

“It is impossible to predict how long the Covid-19 pandemic will persist” adding that “a 2^nd wave of Covid-19 cases across Europe in late autumn (when the annual flu season commences) is our biggest fear right now”.

The airline expects to record a smaller loss in Quarter 3 of 2020 as it continues to increases its flying schedule.

Its main competitor Wizz Air announced €108m loss in Q2 2020.

The Central and Eastern-European focused budget airline reported a 93.2% drop in the number of passengers carried over the three months to 30 June to reach 707,184.

Nonetheless, the company’s boss, József Váradi, highlighted how the firm’s total cash balance had dipped just 3% to £1,587.9m while by end June the company was operating at near 70% capacity versus an average of 11.5% in the first quarter.

“This gives Wizz Air important operational momentum going into the summer season,” he said.

On a statutory basis, the net loss for the second quarter amounted to €108.0m, against €72.4m of profits a year earlier.

Load factor meanwhile was at 55.5% over the quarter, down from 93.7%, meaning that what planes did remain in the air were just over half full.

Making the most of a bad situation, the carrier launched 200 new routes during the quarter, opening new bases in Albania, Cyprus, Italy, Ukraine, Germany, Romania and Russia.

It also launched a Cabin Crew-to-Captain programme to allow aspiring Wizz Air cabin crew to train as pilots.

A total of 22 aircraft were re-allocated across its network, and two brand new A321-neo were scheduled to begin plying a new route to Abu Dhabi starting from 1 October.