*

Plans 5 million passengers in Ukraine in 1-2 years

post-reopen

CEO announces 24 new routes from Poland, expects 5% growth

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Summer fares to rise 4-6% this year after last year's 10%

drop

(Adds bullet points, recasts with Ukraine passenger numbers in

lead paragraph, comments from CEO throughout.)

By Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk

WARSAW, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Ryanair could have as many as

5 million passengers per year in Ukraine within a year or two of

reopening its skies, CEO Michael O'Leary said on Tuesday, as the

low-cost airline prepared for a return to the war-torn country.

With U.S. President Donald Trump vowing to bring the war in

Ukraine to an end soon, airlines including Ryanair and its

low-cost competitor Wizz Air ( WZZAF ) are getting in position to

benefit from flights resuming.

"Straight out-of-the-box... we have two million seats in

there within six weeks (of the sky reopening) and then I think

we would want to open bases both in Kyiv and Lviv within 12

months and then I think we could go from two to five million

passengers within a year or two," O'Leary told Reuters.

He said returning to some other airports in Ukraine could

take longer due to greater damage from the three-year war

between Russia and Ukraine. He said that the airline wanted to

have 6-8 routes to Ukraine from Poland.

Ryanair will launch 24 new routes from Poland this summer.

It expects summer fares overall to rise 4-6% this year, O'Leary

said at a press conference in Warsaw on Tuesday.

The Irish airline experienced a 10% fall in fares over its

two summer quarters last year, in part due to a dispute with

online travel agents, which has been largely resolved.

"Fares will grow between 4% and 6% this year, so you'll

still be traveling at slightly cheaper prices than in the summer

of 2023, but you'll be a little bit up on 2024," O'Leary said.

He thought the situation at Boeing ( BA ) was improving and

that the planemaker would catch up on its delivery backlog in

time for summer 2026.

"They're going to leave us 20 aircraft short for the summer

of 2025, but we are due 29 aircraft for summer 2026, 24 of those

aircraft will be delivered in August, September or October of

2025 so we're guaranteed to have them for summer 2026 and then

the last four are due in January and February of 2026," he said.