Ryanair expects to carry 100 million passengers for the first time in the current year after an 11% rise in passengers to 90.6 million in the year to March 31.
After-tax profits jumped by 66% to €867 million (£613 million) during the year and Ryanair is pencilling in further improvement this year, with profits set to range between €940 million and €970 million.
New look: Ryanair toned down its garish yellow cabins as part of its reinvention (Picture: Ryanair)
O’Leary said that the airline’s results “demonstrate the enduring strength of Ryanair’s lowest-fare/lowest-cost model”.
Ryanair was set up by the billionaire Ryan family in 1985 with just 25 staff, beginning daily flights on a 15-seater, Bandeirante aircraft from Waterford in south-east Ireland to Gatwick.
The airline’s first pilots had to be less than 5ft 2in to operate in the aircraft’s tiny cabin.
The company now has annual sales of more than €5.6 billion and 9500 staff, with a fleet of 320 aircraft.
The company will lease six more aircraft this year to cope with demand.
Forward bookings for the summer peak are an average 4% ahead of last year, helping push its load factor — the measure of how full its planes are — to 90%.
Ryanair has also taken advantage of currency weakness and plunging fuel prices, hedging 90% of its oil at $92 a barrel for this year and 36% at $69 a barrel for the year to March 2017.
