Ryanair January traffic soars 25%

Traffic at low cost airline Ryanair rose 25% in January to 7.48m, as the load factor, which gauges how many seats were taken up on flights, increased to 88% from 83%.

Meanwhile, rolling annual traffic was up 17% to 102.9m customers.

Chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs attributed the passenger growth to lower fares as part of the group’s load factor active/yield passive policy.

“These record monthly numbers and load factors are also due to the continuing success of our ‘Always Getting Better’ customer experience programme, which continues to deliver strong than expected forward bookings, traffic and load factors," he said.

Earlier this month, Ryanair posted a jump in third quarter profit as traffic grew strongly and the airline announced a €800m share buyback programme.

For the three months ended 31 December, profit after tax rose to €103m from €49m as traffic increased 20% to 25m and revenue gained 17% to €1.33bn.

At 0828 GMT, Ryanair shares were up 0.2% at €14.11.