Ryanair upgrades fare growth forecast on strong early 2026 bookings

DUBLIN, Jan 26 (Reuters) - ⁠Ryanair on ⁠Monday ‍upgraded its forecast for average fare growth for its financial year, ‍which ends on March 31, and said ​full-year after-tax profit was likely to be around ​one-third higher than last year.

The Irish airline, Europe's largest by passenger numbers, said average fares would be 1 ​or 2 percentage points higher than the 7% annual growth it forecast ​in November as fares in the first three months of ‌2026 were "trending ahead of prior year."

"While Q4 doesn't benefit from Easter, fares are ​trending ahead of prior ⁠year and we now believe full-year fares will exceed the +7% growth ‌previously guided by 1% or 2%," the airline said in a statement.

As a result, the ‌airline is "cautiously guiding" pre-exceptional after-tax profit in a range ‌of 2.13 billion euros to 2.23 billion euros ($2.53-$2.65 billion), compared to 1.61 billion euros last year.

Ryanair faces an ‍exceptional charge related to a 256 million euro fine from the ⁠Italian competition authority in December, but it said it was confident it would be overturned on appeal.

($1 = 0.8429 euros)

(Writing by Conor Humphries; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

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