RYANAIR has announced the biggest quarterly profits increase in the history of the company.

The opening of the year also saw the no-frills Irish carrier fly more than a million passengers for the first time in three successive months, this at a time when most airlines were still attempting to recover from the effects of September 11 and the global economic downturn.

Billing itself Europe's largest low-fares airline, Ryanair - which yesterday reported a big increase in its July passenger figures - said the first quarter's 38 per cent rise in numbers had been largely due to a 7 per cent cut in average fares.

The company said that over the first three months of 2002 profits had gone up by 68 per cent.

Total revenues throughout the period went up by 29 per cent to £122.4m, while operating expenses rose by on;y 22 per cent to £93.8m.