Oil price will wipe out profits, says Ryanair

The budget airline Ryanair warned yesterday that profits this year are likely to be wiped out by the high cost of oil and predicted that more airlines would go bust in the coming months as they struggled to cope with prices at around $130 a barrel.

Michael O’Leary, chief executive, said fares on Ryanair would increase by about 5% this year and he vowed to continue raising charges for putting baggage in the hold and for passengers checking in at the airport, instead of online.
But he dismissed recent claims that the days of cheap flights were over as “bullshit”. He said: “The era of high-fare air travel is over, which is why in the last couple of months we have seen the tragic demise of these transatlantic business class-only airlines. And we will see more bankruptcies this summer and this winter … The ones who won’t go bust will be British Airways, Air France, Lufthansa, probably easyJet and Ryanair. Everyone else is in danger of going bust.”

Guardian