MADRID: Irish airline Ryanair expects to fly 165 million passengers as it returns to profit in the year to March 2023, Chief Executive Michael O'Leary told Spanish newspaper Cinco Dias.

O'Leary said he expects occupancy on the airline's jets will rise to between 90% and 95% this summer, the paper reported on Monday.

Ryanair is profitable when occupancy reaches 80%, O'Leary was quoted as saying.

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The Irish low-cost airline, Europe's largest by passenger numbers, flew 130 million passengers in the financial year that ended as the COVID-19 pandemic was taking hold in March 2020, and only 27 million the following year.