Ryanair growth plans have gained momentum, giving them expectations to have 180 million passengers a year within a decade, 20 million higher than their previous target.
The revised figure comes as Ryanair posted a 37% rise in half-yearly pre-tax profit to €1.23 billion (£879 million), excluding exceptional items for the six months to September 30th. Passenger numbers also rose 13% to 58.1 million and revenue jumped 14% to just over €4 billion.
The Irish airline also said that profits for 2015 would be at the upper end of the €1.175 million to €1.225 million range, but depend on bookings for the last three months of the year.
A measure of how full each flight was saw a rise of four percentage points to 93% and showed Ryanair to be the first EU airline to carry more than 10 million passengers in a month in July.
Chief executive, Michael O'Leary said: "We have enjoyed a bumper summer due to a very rare confluence of favourable events including stronger sterling, adverse weather in northern Europe, reasonably flat industry capacity and further savings on our unhedged fuel."
He said there could be a price war next year and expected fares would fall by 4% in the first three months.
"We are already reducing our prices... and in recent weeks we have seen most airlines reduce their prices."
