Ryanair warns of 12% fares rise

Ryanair warned today that surging oil prices will force average air fares up by 12% in the current financial year, while it will also cut winter capacity for the first time in its history.

The no-frills carrier, which has a fleet of 272 planes, expects traffic to grow by 4% to 75 million passengers in the year to March 2012, but all of that growth will occur in the first half of the period.