The Irish airline is making some movements as it expects to beat another record in the year to the end of March.

In September, Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers flew 15.9 million customers. Its third busiest month ever and up 13% on pre-Covid levels (investing.com). The rise in traffic also means that Ryanair flew more passengers in September than in any of its busiest summer months prior to the Covid pandemic. Until now, Ryanair’s busiest month was August in 2019 when it flew 14.9 million passengers (Reuters).

Ryanair unlike many airlines, kept its crew and pilots up to date with their flying hours during the pandemic to have the upper hand on the rebound this year. The Irish airline flew a record 16.9 million passengers in August 2022 (Reuters).

The average proportion of empty seats per flight increased to 6% last month, up from 4% in August and 3% in September 2019 (investing.com). Ryanair estimates to fly 166.5 million passengers in the year to the end of March, vastly ahead of its prior annual record of 149 million (Reuters). The previous record was reached before the pandemic brought the industry to a halt, therefore it’s good to see Ryanair show signs of partial recovery with shares up 6% today.