By Conor Humphries
DUBLIN (Reuters) -Ryanair's net profit more than doubled in its April-June quarter, thanks in part to the timing of Easter holidays, and bookings for the rest of the summer are robust, Europe's largest low-cost carrier said on Monday.
The Irish airline, Europe's largest by passenger numbers, said it was not seeing a trend of later-than-normal bookings reported by some rivals.
"Across the piece, bookings are good," Chief Financial Officer Neil Sorahan said, adding that consumer confidence
was very strong.
The airline reported a net profit of 820 million euros ($953 million) for its first quarter, which ended on June 30, up from 360 million euros in the same period last year when Easter was in March. A Ryanair poll of analysts had expected 716 million euros.
Average fares rose 21% from the same quarter last year, thanks to the timing of Easter and marginally stronger than expected close-in pricing, CEO Michael O'Leary said in a statement.
In the July-September quarter, when European airlines make most of their profit, Ryanair expects to recover almost all of the 7% fare decline seen last year, when it was hit by weak consumer sentiment and a dispute with some online travel agents.
Asked about recent commentary from British low-cost rivals EasyJet and Jet2 that customers were booking later, Sorahan said: "We're not seeing those kind of trends at all."
Rivals are likely seeing a negative impact from the resolution of Ryanair's dispute with online travel agents, he said.
Ryanair's profit for the year depends heavily on the strength of close-in bookings in August and September, but O'Leary said the rebound in fares should lead to "reasonable net profit growth" for the year to March 31.
As Boeing's largest customer in Europe, Ryanair is particularly exposed to the possible imposition of tariffs on commercial aircraft, but said it was hopeful that an exemption for commercial aircraft could be agreed by the United States and European Union.
"We're all hopeful and maybe a little confident that something might get done," CFO Sorahan said.
($1 = 0.8603 euros)
(Writing by Conor Humphries; Editing by Janane Venkatraman, Kirsten Donovan)
