Ryanair Annual Profit After Tax Climbs 66% - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Low-cost airline Ryanair Holdings PLC (RYA.L, RYAAY) Tuesday said its full-year profit after tax climbed 66 percent to 867 million euros from 523 million euros in the prior year. Net margin jumped from 10 percent to 15 percent.

Earnings per basic share rose to 62.59 euro cents from 36.96 euro cents in the previous year.

Revenue grew 12 percent to 5.654 billion euros from 5.037 billion euros reported last year.

Ryanair said traffic was up 11 percent as load factors rose from 83 percent to 88 percent.

The company continues to experience strong demand and forward booking momentum. Average load factors in the first four months of 2015 grew 10 percent.

While this will slow to 1 or 2 percent over the peak summer months forward bookings are on average 4 percent ahead of this time last year, as the airline's earlier schedules, lower prices and AGB customer program, particularly at primary airports attracts new customers to Ryanair.

Looking ahead, the company believes that lower unit costs in fiscal 2016 will still provide a 10 percent improvement in profits, which should, subject to second-half yields over which the firm has no visibility, rise to a range of 940 million euros to 970 million euros for the full year to March 2016.