Ryanair Holdings’ (RYAAY Quick QuoteRYAAY - Free Report) December traffic declined 83% year over year to 1.9 million guests as coronavirus continues to weigh on air-travel demand.

On a rolling-annual basis, total traffic at Ryanair (including the LaudaMotion unit) plunged 66% to 52.1 million. The carrier’s load factor (percentage of seats filled with passengers) in the month was 73%.

Amid coronavirus-led travel restrictions and aircraft groundings, the carrier’s traffic dropped 80% year over year during the first half of fiscal 2021. More than 99% of the airline’s fleet was grounded from mid-March to June-end.  The company incurred a loss of €410.5 million in the first half of fiscal 2021. Ryanair expects losses to be even higher in the second half of fiscal 2021.

Ryanair Holdings PLC Price

Ryanair Holdings PLC price | Ryanair Holdings PLC Quote

Due to travel restrictions, the airline expects its winter schedule (November-March) to be only 40% of 2019 levels. Additionally, during second-quarter fiscal 2021 earnings release, management forecast fiscal 2021 traffic to be only around 38 million. This indicates a significant decline from 60 million predicted during first-quarter fiscal 2021 earnings release, which again denotes a massive drop from fiscal 2020 traffic of 149 million.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Ryanair carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Transportation sector are ArcBest Corp. (ARCB Quick QuoteARCB - Free Report) , Ryder System (R Quick QuoteR - Free Report) and Herc Holdings (HRI Quick QuoteHRI - Free Report) , each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Shares of ArcBest, Ryder and Herc Holdings have gained more than 58%, 15% and 30% in a year’s time, respectively.

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