Irish low-fares carrier Ryanair announced Monday it logged 197million euros ($265 million) in net earnings in the first quarter of its fiscal year.

The figure marked a staggering 152-percent increase over bottom-line profit in the same quarter a year earlier when the airline was 78 billion euros in the black.

The marked rise in earnings came with a mounting number of passengers, which surpassed the 24-million threshold. Ryanair said airport and baggage fee reductions were offset by the growing uptake of allocated seating.

Improved customer experience

The Dublin-based company pointed out it had opened four new bases at Athens, Brussels, Lisbon and Rome, with another four at Cologne, Gdansk, Warsaw and Glasgow to be inaugurated this coming winter.

Ryanair spoke of gratifying figures, saying its revamped customer satisfaction program "had delivered improvements in addition to the initiatives taken last September, including allocated seating and an easier-to-use website."

The low-budget carrier said it was aiming for at least 620 million euros in full-year profit, thus raising its earlier predictions. Ryanair's forecast for the whole of 2014 puts it ahead of airlines such as Air France and Lufthansa which have had to lower its expectations recently amid fierce competition.

hg/ng (dpa, Reuters)