Irish low-cost airline Ryanair's CEO Michael O'Leary said he had not raised the company's outlook for 2008-09, denying an earlier news agency report.

"I said that analysts estimate EUR60 million - EUR80 million euros, and that we feel comfortable with those estimates. I did not give a new guidance," O'Leary said at a press conference in Munich.

Following a press briefing in Milan earlier on Tuesday, Italian news agency ANSA had reported that O'Leary had said he now expected net profit of EUR60 million - EUR80 million (USD$82 million - USD$109 million) for 2008-09.

In April, O'Leary said there was no reason to change guidance of EUR50 million - EUR80 million for the year ending March 31, 2009.

Ryanair is due to report results for the year to March 31, 2009 at the beginning of June.

O'Leary said he now expected it to take another 2-3 years until the opportunity arose for the budget carrier to enter the long-haul market.

"We've talked about it, but only if we can cheaply obtain long-haul aircraft, and with the delivery delays for those types of aircraft, I don't see any availability for another 2-3 years," O'Leary said in Munich.

He also said price competition in long-haul was much fiercer than in European flights, making such routes less viable.

At the moment, he said he expected carriers offering primarily European routes to benefit from jitters that flights to places such as Mexico and Latin America could raise the risk of contracting H1N1 swine flu following the recent outbreak there.

"But swine flu's complete rubbish. It's like a hangover," O'Leary said.

Mexico's death toll from the H1N1 flu outbreak has risen to 56, the health ministry there said on Monday. Some 30 countries have reported cases of the flu, which has killed people in Canada, the United States and Costa Rica as well as Mexico.

Rival easyJet's CEO Andy Harrison said last week there had been "no impact yet" from the swine flu outbreak.