Ryanair keeps flying high

The strong performance prompted the Irish group to increase its expectations for the year as a whole.

However, it warned that profits were unlikely to grow as swiftly over the next six months, describing the latest set of results as exceptional.

The company, Europe's second largest budget airline, last week announced plans for a new terminal at Dublin airport which it said could double the number of passengers arriving per day.

Winning formula

Ryanair reported profits of 169m euros (£107m) for the first six months of the year, compared to 102m euros (£65m) in the same period a year ago.

The figures were well ahead of market expectations, and, in London, sent shares up 58p - or 13.5% - to 477.5p.

Stock in other airlines also rose, with shares in both Easyjet and British Airways closing up more than 11% on Monday.

But chief executive Michael O'Leary warned that Ryanair's record profit levels "will not, in my opinion, be repeated".

Nonetheless, the airline group has now increased its forecasts for full year profits from 200m euros to 230m euros and analysts said they would be raising their targets for the year by 5-19%.

Ryanair also said it had carried 37% more passengers than a year ago, and was on track to double its number of passengers from 15m this year to 30m in five years time.

Happy fliers?

Earlier this year, Ryanair was criticised by the Air Transport Users Council for passenger complaints.

On Monday, Mr O'Leary said Ryanair would now publish monthly customer service figures and showed figures for September when the number of flights leaving on time rose from 65% to 81%.

"We believe that it is this combination of price and customer service that continues to underpin our very strong traffic growth," said Mr O'Leary.

Ryanair said it would announce new routes after Christmas and add 13 more planes to its current fleet of 44.

Boosting visits

Ryanair, which in August warned that the Irish tourist industry was facing "decline and disaster", has now given its proposal for a new airport terminal to the Irish Transport Minister Seamus Brennan.

The airline's chief executive Michael O'Leary suggested the development would be "as significant a revolution for tourism as the set-up of Ryanair in the mid-1980s".

However, Ryanair is facing stiff competition for building the new terminal.

A total of 13 groups, including the Air France subsidiary CityJet, have also submitted proposals to the Irish government.