DUBLIN, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Ryanair reported

after-tax profit on Monday just ahead of analyst forecasts for

the six months ended September and nudged up its passenger

traffic forecast due to earlier than expected Boeing ( BA )

deliveries and strong first-half demand.

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

said it cautiously expects to recover all of last year's 7%

average fare decline in its financial year to March 31, and that

should lead to "reasonable" net profit growth for the full year.

Average fares grew by 13% year-on-year during the first

half.

The low-cost carrier reported a net profit of 2.54 billion

euros ($2.96 billion) for the first half, which is when it

typically makes most of its profit due to the northern

hemisphere's busy summer holiday season.

That was up 42% from 1.8 billion euros in the same period

last year and ahead of a Ryanair poll of analysts that had

expected 2.5 billion euros.

Ryanair expects to fly 207 million passengers in the year to

end-March, up from an earlier forecast of 206 million after it

received 23 new MAX 8 aircraft from Boeing ( BA ) in the first half.

"While Q3 forward bookings are slightly ahead of (PY) prior

year, particularly across the Oct. mid-term and Christmas peaks,

we would caution that we face more challenging PY fare comps in

H2 making fare growth more challenging," Chief Executive Michael

O'Leary said in a statement.

($1 = 0.8575 euros)