Ryanair CEO says summer fares will be up 7-9% on 2019 levels

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Ryanair Group Chief Executive Michael O'Leary said bookings for Europe's biggest budget airline have continued to strengthen and he expects summer fares to be between 7% and 9% higher than pre-pandemic levels.

O'Leary told Reuters that "we've seen very strong bookings through May. We had 92% load factor in May. We think that would rise to about 94% in June. And July, August, and September look very strong with higher load factors and also higher fares".

"Fares will be up probably high single digits 7,8, 9 percent over summer 2019," he said.

(Reporting by Clement Rossignol; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)