European budget airline Ryanair reported worse-than-expected financial results for the quarter, citing lower flight prices and lower demand, CNBC writes. The company's quarterly profit after tax fell 46% to 360 million euros. A year ago, the company earned 663 million euros. Analysts predicted that the company's profit would exceed 530 million euros. The company explains the poor performance by the fact that last quarter ticket prices on average decreased by 15% and amounted to 41.93 euros. In addition, the company had to offer travelers more discounts than planned. The company issued cautious guidance for the second quarter, noting that pricing is challenging and ticket prices are likely to be significantly lower than a year earlier. Group chief executive Michael O'Leary warned shareholders that ticket prices in the summer – the prime travel months – would fall significantly as consumer demand is weaker than expected. He noted that prices continue to fall. "Despite strong demand in the second quarter, prices are still lower than we expected, and we expect ticket prices in the second quarter to be substantially lower than last summer," Leary said. The airline previously predicted that ticket prices would remain stable or even rise slightly. From April to June, Ryanair served about 55.5 million passengers, which is 10% more than a year earlier. The company expects to increase the number of passengers by 8% in the current financial year – to 198-200 million. After the announcement of the results, the company's share price fell by more than 10%.
