Ryanair forecasts rise in passengers because it places Elon Musk spat to mattress

Ryanair has boosted its passenger growth outlook as it said it expects more holidaymakers to fly with it this year.

The Irish budget airline made the upgrade after passenger numbers grew 6pc to 47.5m in the three months to December 31 thanks to Christmas getaways and journeys to visit family.

It comes as the airline’s chief financial officer said a row between boss Michael O’Leary and billionaire Elon Musk was ‘pretty much behind us’.

The airline said it now expects 2025-26 passenger growth of 4 per cent to almost 208million due to strong demand and earlier than expected deliveries of Boeing planes.

This is a jump from previous guidance for 207million passengers.

Ryanair hit the headlines last week after Elon Musk – the boss of Tesla and X, formerly Twitter – called its chief executive ‘an idiot’ and ‘insufferable’.

Ryanair now expects traffic growth of 4 per cent to 208 million passengers

Musk also suggested he could buy the company in a spat over Ryanair dismissing the idea of using his Starlink internet technology to offer in-flight wifi.

But on Monday, Ryanair finance officer Neil Sorahan said: ‘It’s pretty much behind us at this point in time. It was two big idiots having a bit of fun with each other.’

And he told Bloomberg TV that installing such wifi technology was currently too costly for the airline, which offers short trips between European destinations.

‘I’ve been looking at this for the 23 years I’ve been in Ryanair, it’s getting better and better every year but it’s just not there yet,’ he said.

O’Leary had said the row had boosted bookings by between 2 and 3pc last week.

He also said last week: ‘If he wants to call me an idiot, he wouldn’t be the first, and he certainly won’t be the last … But if it helps to boost Ryanair sales, you could insult me all day, every day.’

It came as Ryanair upped its guidance for fare growth, which it said would increase by 7 per cent to 8 per cent – compared to a previous steer of 7 per cent.

It warned that the group’s final profit figure ‘remains exposed to adverse external developments in Q4, including conflict escalation in Ukraine and the Middle East, macro-economic shocks and any further impact of repeated European air traffic control strikes & mismanagement.’

It is expecting annual pre-tax profits of £1.85bn to £1.93bn.

But it said its third-quarter pre-tax profits fell 83 per cent to £21.2 million as it put aside the provision for a £222 million fine from Italy’s competition watchdog.

But Ryanair said it was ‘confident’ it could appeal this penalty, after it was accused of using an ‘abusive strategy’ to hinder third-party travel agencies.

Adam Vettese, market analyst for eToro, says: ‘Much like its CEO, Ryanair’s Q3 update combines solid performance with headline-making drama.’