Ryanair upped its profit forecast after the budget airline enjoyed a busier-than-expected Christmas and new year travel period.

The company said a higher-than-expected surge in last-minute bookings over the Christmas and new year period, and stronger forward bookings across the final three months of the year, means it expects post-tax profits to be between €950m (£808m) and €1.05bn for the year to the end of March. This is a significant increase on the airline’s expectations of €800m to €900m.

“On the basis of current trading, Ryanair expects to finish close to the mid-point of this new range,” the airline said.

Ryanair also expects to carry a million more passengers across the year than the 153 million it had forecast, thanks to strong forward bookings for the January to April period, which are up 1% year on year.

It was not all good news, though, as the company admitted that losses at Laudamotion, its Austrian subsidiary, will be worse than expected at €90m. Ryanair, which blamed intense competition from Lufthansa-owned subsidiaries in Germany and Austria, had forecast an €80m loss for the year.

“Laudamotion continues to underperform, with average fares over Christmas lower than expected, despite strong traffic growth and high load factors,” the company said.

Ryanair is in for a tougher summer because of further delays in the delivery of the grounded Boeing 737 Max planes. In November, Ryanair said the delivery delays would more than halve its passenger growth rate next summer to 3% from 7%, with the airline carrying 157 million people over the year as a whole rather than 162 million as previously planned.