Ryanair sees wet weather elsewhere boosting Mediterranean holidays

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ryanair is seeing no sign of a change in booking habits due to a heatwave in parts of Europe and if anything expects wet weather in other parts of the continent to boost Mediterranean holidays, Chief Executive Michael O'Leary said on Monday.

The Irish airline, Europe's largest by passenger numbers, reported record profits for the April to June period on Monday and said demand looked robust for the rest of the summer as people continue to prioritise leisure travel after the pandemic.

That is despite temperatures soaring across southern Europe this month, with wildfires on the Greek island of Rhodes, a popular tourist destination, forcing the evacuation of 19,000 people over the weekend.

"Are we seeing any changes in demand patterns? No. In fact, if anything over the last two or three weeks we've seen stronger demand ex-Ireland, ex-UK, of people trying to get the hell away from the unseasonably high rainfall we've had," O'Leary told an analyst call.

"If anything, it gives me even more confidence for sustained growth in Mediterranean holidays over the next decade as we grow to 300 million passengers a year (from 169 million last year)."

Finance chief Neil Sorohan said there was also no sign of customers cancelling trips due to the higher temperatures and that people just tend to go on holidays regardless.

That echoed comments last week from rival easyJet that travellers have not been deterred from going to their usual sunny holiday spots.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Mark Potter)