Central European countries and the Baltic states recently signed up to the European Union have the ability to treble annual levels of incoming air traffic, Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary claimed yesterday.

However, he stressed that "rapid growth" would be achieved only as long as governments reduced tax levels on tickets alongside better management of airports.

"You need government support for rapid growth," Mr O'Leary told delegates and journalists attending the annual conference in Belgrade of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which invests in a number of countries in central Europe and the Baltic states.

"Airports' management should not be out to make a quick profit," he added.

He said that there was no reason why new EU members across the region, including Poland and Latvia, could not replicate the success of Germany's Frankfurt-Hahn airport by attracting four million passengers over seven years.

They "can grow traffic very rapidly", Mr O'Leary said, adding that their airports should be doubling or tripling air traffic numbers on an annual basis.

"If airports are not doubling or tripling passenger traffic every year, management should be shot," he said, to ripples of laughter.

Mr O'Leary said that Ryanair's summer bookings were going well, adding that he was comfortable with an expected €246 million net profit for the year just ended.

"That's the general range of analyst expectations and we are not unhappy with that," he said.

Ryanair, which is due to publish results for the 12 months to end-March next week, had seen a "fantastic" start to its 2005/2006 business year in terms of summer bookings, Mr O'Leary said.

"If you take the month of May, we expect to have a load factor of over 80 per cent and we have said the load factor throughout the summer would be over 80 per cent."

Ryanair said earlier this month that it had filled 81 per cent of seats on its flights during April. - (Reuters)