DUBLIN (Reuters) -Ryanair's net profit more than doubled in its April-June quarter, thanks to the timing of Easter holidays and better-than-expected last-minute fares, Europe's largest low-cost carrier said on Monday.

The Irish airline, Europe's largest by passenger numbers, reported a net profit of 820 million euros ($953 million) for the first quarter, up from 360 million euros in the same period last year when Easter was in March.

A Ryanair poll of analysts had expected 716 million euros.

"Q1 fares substantially benefited from having a full Easter holiday in April, weak prior-year comps and marginally stronger than expected close-in pricing," CEO Michael O'Leary said in a statement.

Average fares rose 21% from the same quarter last year, the statement said.

"We... cautiously expect to recover almost all of last year's 7% full-year fare decline, which should lead to reasonable net profit growth in FY26," which ends on March 31, O'Leary said.  

Ryanair shares closed at 23.12 euros on Friday, down 7.5% from the all-time high of 24.98 euros hit on July 8.

($1 = 0.8603 euros)

(Writing by Conor Humphries; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)