Ryanair cuts Stansted Airport flights citing Brexit vote

Ryanair revealed its “surprise and disappointment” at the UK’s decision to leave the EU.

LONDON, July 25 (Reuters) – European stocks rose on Monday, with low-priced airline Ryanair climbing after it issued a bullish outlook while shares in William Hill surged on bid interest from its rivals.

An airport spokesman said: “Ryanair has a very healthy route network at Stansted and we are sure that they will continue to offer passengers a great range of destinations”.

Ryanair said it would cut available seats on routes from its busy London Stansted hub this winter, though without closing any routes.

“In the near term, we expect that Brexit uncertainty will lead to weaker sterling, slower growth in the United Kingdom and European Union economies and downward pressure on fares until the end of 2017 at least”, added O’Leary.

This morning Ryanair reported profit growth of 4% for the first quarter of its financial year.

Revenue for the three months to the end of June grew 2% when compared to the same period in 2015, from €1.65bn to €1.69bn.

Net profit in the three months ended June 30 increased 4.5 per cent to €256m, Ryanair said in a statement this morning.

While the airline still faces a cocktail of risks from Brexit, which may force it to cut profit forecasts later in the year, Chief Executive Michael O’Leary said he “did not see the evidence to justify a cut” right now.

Consumers were also less optimistic in the month, with fewer respondents seeing now as being a good time to buy a big ticket item and a rise in the number expecting their financial situation to worsen over the next year. Fares were already falling as low fuel prices encouraged airlines to add flights to seek market share, while tour operators shifted planes to European routes from destinations seen as at risk of terrorism, including Egypt and Turkey.

He warned the company faced further disruption if Britain failed to secure access to Europe’s Open Skies agreement, but that these risks would be manageable.

The airline said the profit met previous guidance and was affected by the absence of Easter in the period as well as terrorism and air traffic control strikes.