Ryanair traffic grows 11% in May, load factor ticks up

Budget carrier Ryanair reported an 11% jump in traffic in May as the load factor nudged higher.

Traffic grew to 11.8m customers, while the load factor - which gauges how full the flights are - ticked up to 95% from 94% the year before.

On a rolling annual basis, traffic was up 13% to 122.5m.

Chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs attributed the improvement to the company's "Always Getting Better" customer experience programme and lower fares.

At the end of May, Ryanair reported a record annual profit of €1.32bn but said it expected fares to fall by 5% to 7% in the 12 months to March 2018, in part due to the weaker pound. It pointed to the challenges of Brexit and terrorist attacks, but said it was forecasting an 8% jump in profits for the current financial year.