RYANAIR boss Michael O'Leary has vowed to pass tumbling oil prices onto passengers with cheaper fares from the beginning of next year.

The head of the no-frills Irish carrier, which already boasts the cheapest fares in Europe on average, said they tend to bulk buy oil six to 12 months in advance and had hedged their existing supply at $93 a barrel.

However, Mr O'Leary said they expected to see the current low prices filter through to their bottom line by the end of this year, and promised to cut the cost of tickets as a result.

He said: "We'll have even lower fares going into next year.

"Oil prices have fallen quite dramatically to less than $50 a barrel.

"We hedged at $93 but as we get to the end of the year we will start to see the fall in oil prices coming through, we intend to pass that on to passengers in the form of lower air fares. So by early 2016 we will have even lower fares.

"Lower oil prices will have a tremendous effect on the airline industry. It will never have been cheaper to fly from your local airport."

An average single fare across Ryanair's network currently comes it at around €46.

Airline association IATA has predicted that over the course of 2015 consumers can expect to see worldwide airfares decrease by an average of 5 per cent.

Mr O'Leary was speaking during whistle-stop visits to Glasgow and Edinburgh to unveil Ryanair's expanded winter schedule, which will see the airline pitting itself against arch-rival Easyjet on the Glasgow-Berlin route with a new service set to launch in October.

The route will be offered on an initial frequency of five times per week, although Mr O'Leary said he expected this to increase to daily flights "pretty quickly".

Ryanair are also adding a fourth daily service between both Glasgow and Edinburgh to London Stansted to meet demand from business travellers, which now account for 27 per cent of the low cost airline's travellers.

Ryanair will also increase frequencies on five other Edinburgh routes to Alicante, Frankfurt Hahn, Krakow, Malaga and Tenerife.

It has rolled out security fast-track, premium seats and flexible tickets to appeal to business passengers, while Mr O'Leary credited a change in the airline's approach to customer service - dubbed the "Always Getting Better" program - for boosting its passenger numbers by 10 per cent in the last year.

The move has stripped back on added charges and introduced allocated seating, a free second carry-on bag, reduced fees, a new website, a new app with mobile boarding passes, and a dedicated family service.

Mr O'Leary said: "We were always known for being somewhat abrupt and not that nice to passengers, but last year I had my Damascene conversion and I'm going to be much nicer to everyone now. "If I'd known it would make us more money I'd have done it years ago."

The Ryanair boss also reiterated his commitment to continue operating from Glasgow Prestwick airport, where it is the only carrier, but stressed the need for Air Passenger Duty (APD) to be axed.

The Smith Commission has recommended devolving control of APD to the Scottish Government, who want to halve and eventually abolish it. The UK Government will unveil the legislation to hand more powers to Scotland on Thursday.

Mr O'Leary has previously said he believed scrapped the duty would allow them to double passenger traffic at the ailing Ayrshire hub, which has fallen to around 500,000 a year.

He said: "It would be crucial to the revival of Prestwick if APD was scrapped. It would allow us to restore our London and Belfast routes for a start."