Ryanair has reported a 7% fall in profits for the first half of the year.

The budget airline said on Monday that average fares declined 3% due to excess capacity in Europe, an earlier Easter in the first quarter, and repeated strikes and staff shortages which caused a spike in cancellations of higher fare, weekend flights.

Ryanair said profits dropped to 1.20 billion euro (£1.6bn) on September 30 2018, from 1.29 billion euro (£1.14bn) on September 30, 2017 – a 7% change.

The airline’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, said: “As recently guided, H1 average fares fell by 3%. While ancillary revenues performed strongly, up 27%, these were offset by higher fuel, staff and EU261 (compensation) costs.

“Our traffic, which was repeatedly impacted by the worst summer of ATC (air traffic control) disruptions on record, grew 6% at an unchanged 96% load factor.”