Ryanair profits up 71%

Ryanair has posted a 71% rise in interim after-tax profit thanks to record traffic, but is warning second-half profit growth will not be as strong.

Nevertheless, the airline raised its profit guidance for the full year from €200m to €230m.

In its first half, profit after tax increased to €150.9m from €88m on revenue up 35% to €464.6m.

First-half pretax profit was €168.7m, up from €102.4m, while second-quarter pretax profit rose to €125.3m from €75m.

Passenger traffic grew 37% to €7.84m, while load factor increased by 6 percentage points to a new high of 88%.

Average fares declined 2%, however costs per passenger fell at a faster rate with the result that margins increased 6 percentage points to 32%.

Chief executive Michael O'Leary says: "These half-year profits have been exceptional, but they will not in my opinion be repeated."

"Yields have fallen 2% during the period which is a lot less than we expected, particularly on our 20 new routes.

"We have already given away 870,000 free seats for quarter three, we will launch new routes from Frankfurt Hahn in December and Milan Bergamo in February, and we will continue to drive down fares in all of our existing markets to widen the price gap between Ryanair and our competitors.

"Yields in quarter three and quarter four will be significantly lower and as a result profit growth will not be as strong as in the first half."

Ryanair says advanced bookings for its new routes from Frankfurt Hahn, its new Strasbourg route, and the initial response to its new base at Milan Bergamo "bodes well for Ryanair's continued disciplined organic growth".