VIENNA, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Budget airline Ryanair's

bookings for December, including the important Christmas period,

are slightly ahead of where they were a year ago, with around

40% of seats remaining to be sold until the end of this year,

CEO Michael O'Leary said on Tuesday.

The airline, Europe's largest by passenger numbers, said

earlier this month it expected to fly 207 million passengers in

the year to end-March, one million more than earlier forecast,

after improved deliveries of aircraft from Boeing ( BA ) enabled it to

add capacity in the first half and the current quarter.

"Bookings for Christmas are running strongly ahead. At the

moment we're about half a percent ahead on forward bookings for

where we were this time last year, and average fares at the

moment are up sort of mid- to high-single-digits," O'Leary told

a press conference at Vienna International Airport.

He added that Christmas and December were essentially

interchangeable, though a Ryanair spokesperson clarified that he

was referring to December as a whole.

"December is essentially Christmas. There's not a lot going

on in the first two weeks of December," O'Leary said.