Ryanair sees over 200% increase in passenger numbers during June

Ryanair said it operated over 88,500 flights in June.

Ryanair has recorded a 203% increase in passenger numbers in June, compared to the same month last year.

The rise in passenger numbers follows the ease in travel restrictions that were in place in 2021.

The budget airline said it carried 15.9m passengers during June as the holiday season got underway.

Ryanair said it operated over 88,500 flights in June.

Its load factor, which measures how well an airline is filling available seats, reached 95% for the first time since the beginning of the Covdi-19 pandemic.

Ryanair's load factor regularly reached at least 96% a month before the pandemic and hit 97% in June 2019.

The low-cost airline expects to fly 15% more passengers this summer than in the same season of 2019, and will carry a record 165m passengers in the year to March 2023.

It carried just under 100 million passengers in the year to March 2022 and its pre-COVID record high was 149m.

Spain-based cabin crew at Ryanair plan to strike for 12 days this month to demand better working conditions, the USO and SICTPLA unions said on Saturday, raising the prospect of travel chaos as the summer tourist season gets under way.

The announcement came on the final day of the crews' current strike, which began on Thursday and forced Ryanair to cancel 10 flights in Spain on Saturday.

Cabin crew will strike on July 12-15, 18-21 and 25-28 across the 10 Spanish airports where Ryanair operates, the unions said in a statement.

"The unions and crew of Ryanair ... demand a change of attitude from the airline," they said in a statement, calling for Ryanair to resume negotiations over issues including payment of the minimum wage.

The unions also urged the government "not to allow Ryanair to violate labour legislation and constitutional rights such as the right to strike".

In a statement on Saturday, Ryanair said it expected "minimal (if any) disruption to its flight schedules in July as a result of minor and poorly supported Spanish labour strikes".

It added that "Air Traffic Control (ATC) strikes and airport staff shortages across Europe (which are beyond Ryanair's control) may however cause some minor disruption and passengers whose flights are disrupted... will be notified by email/SMS."

Ryanair cabin crew unions in Belgium, Spain, Portugal, France and Italy had taken strike action in recent days but the low-cost airline said less than 2% of its flights scheduled over last weekend had been affected. 

Airline workers across Europe have been staging walkouts as the sector adapts to a resumption of travel after pandemic lockdowns were lifted. 

• Additional reporting from Reuters