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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