Ryanair sees a 9% increase in traffic in the December month

The low-cost carrier said that traffic increased to 12.54 million from 11.52 million in the same month last year, but the load factor—a measure of how full the planes are—went down slightly to 91% from 92%.

Rolling 12-month totals showed a 13% rise in passengers to 181.8 million and a 4% increase in load factor from 92% to 94%.

Ryanair reported that although it conducted over 72,500 flights in December, the Israel/Gaza conflict resulted in the cancellation of over 900 flights.

The airline also said that early in the month, online travel agencies (OTAs) including Booking, Kiwi, and Kayak abruptly stopped offering its flights for sale.

According to the firm, the "welcome" withdrawal may have been made in reaction to a recent Irish High Court verdict that handed Ryanair a permanent injunction against screenscraper Flightbox, prohibiting them from illegally collecting material from Ryanair.com for OTAs. The decision may have also been prompted by pressure from consumer protection agencies. It further stated that it may possibly be a reaction to Ryanair's "Know Your Passenger" consumer efforts, such as verification.

Even though these OTAs only make up a small portion of Ryanair's reservations, the airline said it expects the move to soften short-term yields as it responds by making more cheap prices accessible directly to customers and reducing short-term load factors by 1% to 2% in December and January.

However, the airline does not anticipate that the withdrawal would have a major impact on its traffic or profit after tax estimate for FY24.

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

(Sources: investing.com, sharecast.com)