TIRANA, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Ryanair is seeing

very strong demand across Europe and is "reasonably optimistic"

of hitting its summer targets, Chief Executive Michael O'Leary

said in an interview on Thursday.

He also praised Boeing ( BA ) for agreeing to deliver some

jets earlier than scheduled, ending run of delays that have

curbed the airline's growth rate.

"We're seeing strong bookings through the peak summer months

... The fares are holding up," O'Leary said, adding that

bookings were about 1% ahead of where they were at the same

point last year.

(Writing by Conor Humphries

Editing by Tomasz Janowski)