Shares in Ryanair flew up 8% today after the Irish budget airline’s decision to offer customer services, plus a burst of demand for winter holidays, helped it raise its annual profit forecast for the fourth time this year.
The carrier has already flown 85.4 million customers this year — 5% more than the same time last year — after its inimitable chief executive Michael O’Leary decided the airline should “stop unnecessarily pissing people off.”
Ryanair now reckons its full year, post-tax profit could be as high as €830 million — up from its previous range of €750 million to €770 million.
That fourth upgrade follows Ryanair telling the City at the start of its financial year that profits could start at €580 million.
The budget airline will fly more than 90 million passengers this year — a million more than it last predicted. In November, the first month of Ryanair’s bigger winter schedule when it flew 13% more seats and new city routes designed to appeal to business fliers, traffic numbers rose by 22% to 6.35 million.
Its planes were 7% fuller with popular new flights including Stansted to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Lisbon, Cologne and Athens.
During the year, it’s also scrapped unpopular fees, revamped its website, increased the carry-on baggage allowance and aped rival easyJet by offering allocated seating.
Ryanair’s complaints are down 40% to 80,000 letters a year, O’Leary has reported.
The airline has ordered another 200 planes in the last six months to boost its network.
Shares rose 67 cents at €9.38.
