Ryanair has issued a price warning for summer flights to Europe.

Ryanair has announced that plane ticket prices will climb this summer due to high demand for European beach vacations.

Flight prices are expected to climb by a “high single-digit percent,” according to airline CEO Michael O’Leary.

Lower fares, he claimed, were currently driving an increase in passenger numbers, aiding the airline’s recovery from the pandemic.

He expressed optimism that the airline would return to “decent profitability” this fiscal year.

On Monday, the company disclosed yearly losses of €355 million (£302 million), claiming that the Omicron variation and the situation in Ukraine had hampered its recovery from the lifting of Covid limitations.

Concerns that supplies from Russia, a key exporter of fossil fuels and jet fuel, could be disrupted have pushed up global oil prices.

The group’s loss for the year ended March 31 was lower than projected, compared to losses of €1.02 billion (£867 million) the previous year.

‘There’s so much demand’

Mr. O’Leary predicted that prices would be lower until June compared to pre-pandemic levels, but that “based on around half of all bookings, we estimate prices to go up high single digits” over the summer.

“It appears to us that prices will grow into that peak summer period since there is so much demand for Europe’s beaches, and those price gains will persist,” said.