O'Leary sold five million shares in Ryanair at €3.75 a share

RYANAIR CHIEF executive Michael O’Leary sold five million shares in the airline at €3.75 a share on June 5th.

The sale, before taxes, is worth €18.75 million to Mr O’Leary.

The sale is equivalent to 0.34 per cent of the airline’s shares and reduces Mr O’Leary’s holding to just over 4 per cent or 60 million shares.

Ryanair shares were lower in Dublin in early trade, slipping 2 per cent to €3.67.

Last week Ryanair was defeated in two motions at the Aer Lingus annual general meeting that sought to reduce the pay of the airline’s chairman and other board members.

Ryanair holds a stake of 29.8 per cent in Aer Lingus, and is the largest shareholder in the former State airline.

Last Tuesday Ryanair announced its first full-year loss in 20 years after it wrote down the value of its stake in Aer Lingus by €222 million, which contributed to a net loss of €169.2 million for the 12 months to the end of March 2009.

Ryanair is predicting profits of between €200 million and €300 million depending on fuel costs and average fares for this year and that passenger numbers will rise 15 per cent to 67 million.

Separately yesterday, airlines called for concerted action to prevent another runaway surge in oil prices as the International Air Transport Association (IATA)nearly doubled its forecast of industry losses to $9 billion (€6.4 billion) in 2009.

The head of the Geneva-based airline lobby lambasted “greedy speculation” in oil markets and accused governments of squandering money raised from aviation while carriers suffered.

“This is the most difficult situation the industry has faced,” said IATA director general Giovanni Bisignani.

However, John Leahy, commercial director at European aircraft manufacturer Airbus, said while 2009 would be tough, plans by United Airlines to order as many as 150 new planes from Airbus or rival Boeing showed the market was starting to turn. – (Additional reporting: Reuters)