Budget airline sees a rise in profits.

Budget airline Ryanair has today, 5 November, announced record half-year profits of €408 million (over £280m) – an increase of 24% over last year.

The no-frills airline, Europe’s largest international airline, has also seen traffic grow by 20% and revenues rise by 24% to €1,554m.

Although unit costs, such as fuel and staff, have increased by 5%, Ryanair has maintained an industry leading after-tax margin of 26%.

During the announcement of the half-yearly results, Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, attacked the proposed environmental tax that airlines may face: “[UK] Chancellor Alistair Darling’s plans to change the basis of UK APD in 2009 from a per passenger charge to a per flight charge fails to address the fundamental inequity of this travel tax scam. Aviation, which accounts for less than 2% of EU CO2 emissions (just half the figure for marine transport), is not the cause of climate change and taxing it will not have any effect on this problem.

“Not one penny of the extra £1 billion (GBP) raised annually by this UK travel tax scam has been spent on environmental projects.”

Following the announcement of the half-year results, the airline has launched a four million seat sale, with fares of €10 / £10 inclusive.