Ryanair announce half year profit of €1.4 billion
Ryanair has announced a half year profit of €1.4 billion for the six months to the end of September.
That figure includes a one-off gain of €317m from selling its stake in Aer Lingus to IAG.
The airline said its profit after tax rose by 37 percent to €1.088 billion, while revenues for the six month period rose by 14 percent to €4.04 billion.
Ryanair said it carried 58 million passengers over the first six months of the year, representing 13 percent growth in traffic.
In July Ryanair became the first EU airline to carry more than 10 million passengers in a single month.
Ryanair said that it expects growth in its traffic to continue, the airline had previously said it expected to carry 104 million passengers this year, and it has now upgraded that forecast to 105 million.
“We have enjoyed a bumper summer due to a very rare confluence of favourable events including stronger sterling, adverse weather in northern Europe, reasonably flat industry capacity and further savings on our unhedged fuel,” commented Ryanair’s chief executive Michael O’Leary.
