Ryanair recovery continues despite more losses

Ryanair's recovery from the Covid-19 collapse in air travel has continued, but the airline still expects a heavy loss for the year.

The airline has narrowed losses in the past few months, but warned its annual deficit could hit €200m (£170m).

Boss Michael O'Leary told the BBC the industry was seeing a "very strong recovery" across Europe.

However, he said heavy price discounting would be needed to fill aircraft this winter.

The recent school holidays had seen Ryanair "full to the gills as people got a last bit of sun", Mr O'Leary said. But that did not mean the hit to the industry from the coronavirus pandemic was over, he added.

The Irish airline reported an after-tax loss of €48m for the six months to September, which compared with a loss after tax of €411m a year earlier.

Europe's largest budget airline carried 39.1 million passengers in the six months ended September, 54% fewer than in the same period of 2019.

Ryanair is expecting to make of loss of between €100m-200m for the full year, but Mr O'Leary said the guidance could not be more specific because there was still "little visibility" on ticket prices and recovery.

But he said the post-pandemic recovery offered the best growth opportunities of his three-decade career. In September, Ryanair lifted its passenger growth target. The airline now expects to fly 225 million passengers a year by 2026, up from 200 million previously forecast.

The airline reiterated it expects to return to pre-Covid profitability in the year ending March 2023.