Ryanair buys back shares as part of €1bn programme

Ryanair today repurchased 109,000 shares as part of its plans to return €1 billion in capital to shareholders by way of a combination of share buybacks and dividends.

The airline repurchased the shares at an average price of € 7.2985 through Citigroup Global Markets. These shares will be cancelled, leaving Ryanair with 1,382,389,772 ordinary shares in issue. Citigroup will operate the share buyback programme "independently of, and uninfluenced by, Ryanair" until March 14th.

Last year the airline pledged to return € 1 billion to shareholders over 2014 and 2015, with € 400million of this in the form of stock buybacks and the remaining €600 million to be returned to shareholders in the form of a special dividend or another stock buyback.