DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ryanair (>> Ryanair Holdings plc) Chief Executive Michael O'Leary said he was sure a series of flight cancellations would not help future bookings at the airline that were till now two percent up on a year ago.

Ryanair disrupted the plans of hundreds of thousands of travelers by cancelling flights for the next six weeks to cope with a backlog of staff leave. O'Leary said the budget airline should be able to put 70-85 percent of customers on flights the same day.

"On forward bookings, I'm sure it won't help but our forward bookings are running two percent ahead of where they were this time last year for September, October and November," O'Leary told a news conference.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Edmund Blair)

Stocks treated in this article : Ryanair Holdings plc, Norwegian Air Shuttle