Ryanair traffic rises 10% in August

Budget airline Ryanair reported 10% jump in traffic in August on Tuesday as the load factor ticked higher.

Passenger numbers rose to 12.7m from 11.5m in the same month last year, while the load factor - which gauges how full the planes were - edged up to 97% from 96%. On a rolling annual basis, traffic to August grew 13% to 126.2m customers.

Chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs attributed the rise in passenger numbers to low fares and the company's 'Always Getting Better' customer experience programme.

Back in July,Ryanair reported an impressive increase in quarterly profits but warned of pricing pressures. The Irish carrier said its first-quarter result, where profit after tax rose 55% to €397m, was greatly helped by a later Easter this year boosting prices, but management continued to guide to first-half average fares falling roughly 5% amid a drive to grow traffic by almost 11%, while checked bag revenue was seen as continuing to steeply decline.

The company said at the time that after a difficult winter last year, it expected the pricing environment to remain "very competitive" into the second half.