Ryanair’s first half profits soared 37% to €1.08 billion (£770 million) after a “very rare” series of favourable events.
The budget airline saw passenger numbers increase by 13% to 58 million in the six months up to the end of September.
It carried more than 10 million passengers in July alone.
Its full-year target was revised up by a million to 105 million, notably above last year’s 90.5 million total.
The raised guidance depends on the strength of its bookings in the fourth quarter, which it admits it has “almost zero visibility on”.
It added that its load factor how full each flight is lifted by 4% to 93% during the period.
Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary put the strong first-half performance down to a combination of miserable weather, fuel savings and a strong pound.
“We are pleased to report this strong set of results,” he said.
“We have enjoyed a bumper summer due to a very rare confluence of favourable events including stronger sterling, adverse weather in northern Europe, reasonably flat industry capacity and further savings on our unhedged fuel.”
The airline’s Always Getting Better customer experience improvement programme had helped drive stronger forward bookings and boost traffic growth.
Ryanair predicted that it would fly 180 million passengers a year by 2024 some 20 million more than previously forecast due to higher than expected load factors.
Such a rise would give the carrier almost a quarter of the European market.