Ryanair carried 16.9 million passengers across its various airlines and European route networks in August, latest monthly operational figures from the airline group show.
August’s passenger total – the vast majority of which is attributed to the Ryanair brand, although the group also owns Polish low fares operator Buzz, Austria’s Lauda and Malta Air – was up 52% on the 11.1 million passengers carried in August of last year.
Ryanair also saw a much improved load factor – which measures how full its planes are – from 82% to 96% year-on-year.
Despite rising living costs and Ryanair group chief executive Michael O’Leary saying the era of ultra-cheap air fares is over, due to rising fuel costs, Ryanair enjoyed its best ever June this year carrying 15.9 million passengers that month.
Last month, Ryanair added more than 500 flights to its services out of London Stansted. The move has added around a further 100,000 available seats over the October UK half-term school holidays to the likes of Spain, Italy, Portugal, France and Greece.
ON the back of that, Ryanair has raised its full-year passenger estimate by around 1 million people to 166.5 million. It also hopes to return to pre-pandemic profit levels, of €1bn+, this financial year, which runs to the end of next March.
