September traffic rises for Ryanair
BUDGET airline Ryanair carried more passengers in September compared with the same period last year.
According to the Dublin-based airline led by chief executive Michael O’Leary, it carried 6.84m people last month, marking a sharp 12 per cent increase from September last year when it flew 6.12m people.
However, Ryanair said that it has flown 71.6m passengers during the year to 10 September. This number includes the 1.45m passengers who were booked to fly but didn’t during the six-day closure of European airspace as a result of the volcanic eruptions in Iceland.
The airline said in July that the Icelandic ash cloud had caused it to scrap almost 10,000 flights at a cost of €50m (£43.2m).
The impact caused the airline’s profits to fall by almost 25 per cent during the first quarter of the year causing them to come in at €93.7m (£80m).
Meanwhile, Ryanair’s flights were almost at full capacity last month after the airline filled 86 per cent of its planes. The number, known as load factor, rose by one per cent compared to the same period last year when Ryanair filled 85 per cent of its planes.
During the last 12 months, on average, Ryanair’s load factor reached 82 per cent.