Ryanair traffic jumps 9% in December; flights removed from OTAs

Budget airline Ryanair reported a 9% jump in December passenger numbers on Wednesday as it cautioned that the removal of its flights from online travel agents will dent short-term load factors and soften short-term yields.

The budget airline said traffic rose to 12.54 million from 11.52m in the same month a year earlier, while the load factor - which gauges how full the planes are - ticked down to 91% from 92%.

On a rolling 12-month basis, passenger numbers rose 13% to 181.8m and the load factor increased to 94% from 92%.

Ryanair said it operated more than 72,500 flights in December but over 900 flights were cancelled due to Israel/Gaza conflict.

The airline also noted that early last month, OTAs such as Booking.com, Kiwi and Kayak suddenly removed its flights from sale on their websites.

The "welcome" removal may be the result of pressure from Consumer Protection Agencies or a response to the recent Irish High Court ruling, which granted Ryanair a permanent injunction against screenscraper Flightbox from unlawfully scraping Ryanair.com content for OTAs, the company said. It could also be in response to Ryanair's ‘Know Your Passenger’ customer initiatives such as verification, it added.

Ryanair said that while these OTAs only account for a small fraction of its bookings, it expects the move to reduce short term load factors by 1% or 2% in December and January and also to soften short term yields as it responds by making more low fares available directly to consumers.

The airline does not expect the removal to materially affect its FY24 traffic or profit after tax guidance, however.

"Ryanair will respond to this welcome removal of our flights from OTA Pirate websites, by lowering fares where necessary to encourage all passengers to book directly on Ryanair.com where they are guaranteed to always get the lowest air fares without OTA Pirate overcharges, fake contact info, or other pricing/refund scams," it said.

"In the meantime, Ryanair continues to make its fares available to honest/transparent OTAs such as Google Flights, who do not add hidden mark ups to Ryanair prices and who direct passengers to make their bookings directly on the Ryanair.com website."