Ryanair announced today that it expects its losses for last year to be between €350m and €400m.

It previously estimated that its loss for FY2021, which ended on the 31 March, would be no more than €250m.

However, it had warned earlier that its losses could be as high as €450m.

The airline group said traffic for the full year had recovered to 97m passengers, which was significantly better than in 2021 when it carried only 27.5m passengers, but less than its pre-COVID traffic of 149m.

Passenger numbers in March rose to 11.2m, up from just 500,000 in the same month last year. Around 87% of its seats were filled, compared with 77% in March 2021.

By the end of March 2022, its net debt had dropped from €2.3bn in 2021 to €1.5bn.

Ryanair said it has increased its fuel hedging to cover 80% of its need for this financial year and it has already hedged almost 10% of its fuel requirements for 2024.

Its next market updated will be on 16 May when it will release its 2022 full year results.