Ryanair passenger numbers soar

RYANAIR published its latest monthly passenger statistics yesterday, showing that the low fares airline flew 21% more people in August than in the same month last year.

The airline carried 4.84 million passengers during August, compared to 4m a year ago. Its load factor for last month — which basically measures the amount of seats filled on its planes, rather than the number of seats which were actually sold — was level at 91%.

Dublin analysts said that the strong performance should boost the company’s ancillary revenues. Ryanair’s share price, however, was down by 20c yesterday at €5.20.