Profits are up at Ryanair as its cheap and cheerful formula continues to attract passengers.

Europe's largest budget airline saw pre-tax profits of £12.3m in the three months to December, compared with £9.5m in the previous quarter.

The Irish company now expects to create 250 new jobs in the UK in the coming months.

These jobs are linked to the launch of seven new routes to Europe from the UK which will be announced later this month.

Ryanair's healthy results follow news on Monday of continued losses at British Airways.

The British Airways strategy is to carry fewer passengers, but charge them more money for a better service.

The BA strategy can "only help" Ryanair, the firm's chief executive, Michael O Leary, said.

Ryanair jobs

Mr O'Leary said the group planned to create 250 "highly paid jobs in the UK" over the next few months as the new routes were launched.

Ryanair forecasts that passenger numbers will increase from six million to more than seven million as the airline gets five new Boeing 737-800 series planes later this year.

"These are another set of excellent results which confirm the strength of Ryanair's low fares formula even on new European routes during the off-peak winter months," Mr O Leary said.

He says that even as market conditions remain tough, "we will add new aircraft, launch new routes, promote Ryanair.com, create 250 new highly paid jobs in the UK, and offer even lower fares to consumers on our existing and new European routes."

Ryanair shares traded 10p or 1.3% higher at £7.70 in London