DUBLIN (Reuters) -Ryanair reported on Monday robust demand across Europe and projected that fares would rebound, recovering much of last year's decline that had dented profits as consumers struggled with high interest rates.

Europe's largest low-cost airline reported a 16% fall in annual profit for the 12-month period ended March 31, as softer consumer demand and a dispute with online travel agents drove fares down by 7%.

"Demand is robust all across the network," Chief Financial Officer Neil Sorahan told Reuters in an interview. "We operate into 37 different countries. We're seeing strong summer demands everywhere."

"We're delighted that we're going to be recovering most of that 7% (in fare falls), just not all of it. So, I think that that's a fairly good turnaround."

After-tax profit for Ryanair's financial year came in at 1.61 billion euros ($1.8 billion), in line with a company poll of analysts.

Ryanair said fares for the three months ending in June are expected to rise by a "mid-to-high teen percent" year-on-year, largely driven by the timing of Easter.

Summer bookings are running around 1% ahead of the same period last year, Chief Executive Michael O'Leary said in a video presentation.

Ryanair flew a record 200 million passengers over the 12 months after trimming an earlier 205 million target due to delivery delays from Boeing. It expects to fly 206 million passengers in the year to March 31, 2026.

"We're in good shape on the deliveries," Sorahan said.

Shares in the airline, Europe's largest airline by passenger numbers, closed at 22.41 euros on Friday, recovering strongly from a 12-month low of 13.41 euros last July, which followed a 15% fall in average fares in the first quarter.

($1 = 0.8941 euros)

(Writing by Conor Humphries; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

By Conor Humphries