Ryanair says summer bookings remain strong, fares holding up
TIRANA (Reuters) -Ryanair is seeing very strong demand across Europe and is "reasonably optimistic" about hitting its summer targets, Chief Executive Michael O'Leary said in an interview on Thursday.
He also praised Boeing for agreeing to deliver some jets earlier than scheduled, ending a run of delays that have curbed the airline's growth rate.
"We're seeing strong bookings through the peak summer months ... The fares are holding up," O'Leary said, adding that bookings were about 1% ahead of where they were at the same point last year.
He repeated a forecast from July that average fares were likely to rise by close to 7%, depending on close-in bookings for the remainder of the airline's key second quarter, which ends on September 30.
There has been no sign of consumers changing their plans due to heatwaves this summer, he added.
Boeing, which is due to deliver the final 29 aircraft of Ryanair's current order of 737 MAX jets this winter, has agreed to deliver seven jets in August and seven in September, ahead of an earlier-agreed schedule.
O'Leary was speaking in Tirana, where he announced a doubling of capacity to 4 million passengers per year and the basing of three aircraft at the airport from next April.
(Writing by Conor HumphriesEditing by Tomasz Janowski)
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