Ryanair breaks monthly million mark again

Ryanair carried more than one million passengers last month for only the second time in its history, the budget airline said today.

A total of 1,016,333 people flew with the no-frills operator in March, up 48% on the same month last year.

The number is the highest recorded by Ryanair since the September 11 terrorist attacks- it carried 1,021,000 passengers in August.

Ryanair began flying 16 years ago and will have a network of 76 routes across 13 countries in Europe after nine more are launched tomorrow.

Passengers will be able to fly from London Stansted to the Cornish resort of Newquay, with other destinations including Rome, Milan and Eindhoven.

Fares on these new routes, unveiled by the Irish company in January, start from £9 (€14.6) one way.

Figures for March showed 91% of Ryanair’s initial seat sales are made through the internet, compared with 71% a year ago.

And while the airline’s recent expansion can partly explain the jump in passengers, the number of seats sold for each of its flights remains high.

Ryanair’s load factor, which represents passengers as a proportion of the seats available, was up to 79% last month from 72% in March last year.

The airline said more than 10,000 seats had already been sold for flights from Stansted to Newquay.

A spokesperson for Ryanair added: ‘‘These figures confirm the huge appetite for Ryanair flights.’’