Ryanair’s £18 seat sale comes to an end at midnight tonight, after the budget airline announced a boost in profits for the first half of 2012. (Featured image is by El coleccionista de instantes)
Ryanair’s post-tax profits soared to £477 million for the first six months of this year – a rise of 10 per cent on the same time last year.
The profit boost, which exceeded the expectations of most analysts, has been put down to a surge in passenger numbers and a lower fuel bill.
Passenger numbers were up by 7 per cent on the same time last year, hitting 48 million – a six-month high. The airline attributed the passenger growth to a strong summer performance, particularly after the Olympics finished.
“Profits exceeded our expectations driven by a combination of strong summer bookings, particularly post the Olympics, a 6% rise in average fares, and lower than forecast fuel bill due to the successful implementation of our fuel savings programme,” said chief executive Michael O’Leary.
“Through disciplined management of costs, and by operating a modern, fuel efficient fleet, Ryanair can not only maintain but can further expand its cost advantage over all other competitors across Europe,” he added.
Ryanair now accounts for around 12 per cent of all short-haul flights in Europe, operating more than 1,500 daily flights.
Ryanair announced a winter seat sale last week, offering customers £18 seats on flights to winter destinations across Europe.
The sale is for flights departing between Monday and Thursday in November and December, and comes to an end at midnight tonight (5 November).
“Only Ryanair sells Europe’s lowest fares with no fuel surcharges. In addition to our lowest fares we also deliver Europe’s No 1 on-time performance across over 1,500 routes,” said Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara.
“These seats can only be booked until midnight Monday 5 November and are sure to be snapped up fast so we urge passengers to book them on ryanair.com before they sell out.”
