By Adria Calatayud

Ryanair Holdings shares dropped after the Irish budget carrier warned of weakening prices into the key summer season, last-minute bookings and a spike in fuel costs.

Europe's largest airline group by market value said Monday that pricing eased somewhat in recent weeks due to economic uncertainty caused by higher oil prices and fears about potential fuel shortages, which are also prompting travelers to delay bookings.

Shares in Ryanair fell as much as 4.1% in early European morning trading.

With the pricing outlook for the summer season uncertain, limited visibility beyond and volatility in fuel prices and supply, Ryanair said it was too early to provide profit guidance for the year ending March 2027.

The conflict in the Middle East, rising energy prices and broader concerns about the health of the economy have prompted some travelers in Europe to hold off on bookings for the summer season, leading several European airlines and travel groups to revise their outlooks.

British Airways owner International Consolidated Airlines Group recently lowered its profit guidance for 2026, German travel group TUI suspended its revenue expectations and Air France-KLM cut its capacity forecast.

Ryanair said it expected fares for the quarter ending in June to be behind the year-earlier period by a mid-single-digit percentage, with pricing for the September quarter trending broadly flat. Demand for travel remains robust, even if bookings are coming later than last year, it added.

The company had previously anticipated fares for the summer season to rise by a low-single-digit percentage.

"We hope to be able to give shareholders a clearer picture on [first-half] pricing and fuel costs during our [first-quarter] results release in late July," Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary said.

The company said it has hedged 80% of its fiscal 2027 jet-fuel requirements, but that the price of the remaining 20% spiked due to the conflict. It forecast full-year traffic to grow 4% to 216 million passengers.

For the year ended March 31, Ryanair reported a pretax profit of 2.42 billion euros ($2.81 billion), up from 1.78 billion euros. Excluding exceptional items, the group's profit jumped 40% to 2.26 billion euros.

Revenue climbed to 15.54 billion euros from 13.95 billion euros, driven by higher traffic and revenue per passenger.

The board cut its final dividend to 0.195 euros a share, down from 0.227 euros a year before.

Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 18, 2026 04:15 ET (08:15 GMT)

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