Ryanair says ticket price cuts will continue as it reports profit spike

Ryanair has said it expects to continue cutting fares this year, despite "difficult" trading and a slump in the pound since the Brexit vote.

In its full year results, the low-cost airline said fares had fallen by 13% to an average of €41 per passenger during the last financial year.

It said fares would fall by between 5% and 7% in the year to the end of March 2018.

Despite a lower average in the cost of flights, it reported a 6% rise in net profit of €1.316bn (£1.142bn).

Revenues rose by 2% to €6.6bn (£5.7bn) as passenger numbers increased 13% to 120 million.

However, the carrier admitted it was impacted by delays due to air traffic control strikes and weather disruption at the end of the last year.

Its punctuality fell from 90% the previous year to 88%.

Profits have risen to a record high, but a weaker pound means that fares paid by UK customers in sterling are worth less in euros for Dublin-based Ryanair - which is Europe's largest airline by passenger numbers.

Sterling is more than 10% down against the euro since Britain voted to leave the European Union.

The airline said the year was marred by terrorist attacks across Europe and that flight bookings fell in the aftermath of the suicide bombing at Manchester Arena last week.

Bookings had however started to recover following the launch of seat sales to counter the fall in demand, it said.

The airline added it was "cautiously" forecasting profits to rise by 8% to between €1.4bn (£1.2n) to €1.45bn (£1.3bn) for the year to next March.

Chief (Taiwan OTC: 3345.TWO - news) executive Michael O'Leary warned: "Investors should be wary of the risk of negative Brexit developments, or any repeat of last year's security events at European cities, which could damage consumer confidence."

He added the company would "continue to pivot our growth away from the UK" amid uncertainty caused by Brexit.