Ryanair expects earnings to be in line with its current guidance this year despite the disruption caused by tougher security measures at British airports, chief executive Michael O'Leary said today.
"We have no change in our Q2 or Q3 guidance at the moment. We continue to be comfortable with the current range of analysts' forecasts," Mr O'Leary said after the annual meeting of shareholders in Dublin.
He repeated the company's view that yields - the amount of money it makes from each seat - would decline during the second half, offsetting a first-half rise and meaning they would be stable for the year as a whole.
There was no indication that tighter security measures at UK airports - introduced last month after what police said was a foiled bomb plot - were affecting passenger demand and there would be no underlying impact on Ryanair's results, he added.
"The security alert has had no material effect, but it has cost us money," he said, adding that the company, which is suing the British government for compensation, had lost around 10 per cent of bookings around the weekend of the alert but that within a week it had returned to normal.
During the course of the meeting, Mr O'Leary also told shareholders the company planned to double its passenger numbers and profit over the next six years to 2012.
Ryanair would give "a better flavour" of second quarter yields at an investor conference in New York next Friday, he said.
Shares in the company rose strongly yesterday on the back of falling oil prices and were up another 2.5 per cent at a fresh year-high of €8.30 today, but Mr O'Leary said the carrier had no update on its insurance against another fuel cost rise.
"We are fully hedged until the end of December and we continue to work on hedges for the first calendar quarter of next year but we have nothing further to announce on that at this stage."
At the meeting, the airline announced five new routes - four from Dublin and one from Derry - which will start up next year.