European low-cost carrier Ryanair outperformed analyst expectations this morning, marking the second quarter in a row that the airline's financial performance has exceeded what analysts had penciled in. The airline's overall profit after tax rose around 20% to roughly $1.98 billion. This lifted the airline's six-month profit figure to roughly $2.92 billion, with revenue for the half-year increasing around 13% to $11.31 billion as the airline flew a record 119 million passengers while charging modestly higher average fares across the board and continued to grow add-on sales like bags and seat selection.

Costs were well-controlled despite higher air traffic and environmental fees. Management reiterated record demand and nudged full-year traffic guidance to over 207 million passengers

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