Ryanair flies 34% more people

RYANAIR flew 34% more passengers in April as the carrier added routes and cut fares amid a travel slump caused by the Iraq war and SARS.

The passenger count rose to 1.47 million last month from 1.1 million in April 2002, Ryanair said in a statement.

The load factor, or proportion of seats filled, fell one percentage point from the year-earlier month to 79%. That compares with 85% in the year ended April 30 and 78% in March.

Ryanair is expanding its fleet, adding base airports and increasing its routes in Europe to take advantage of demand for budget travel. Full-service rivals including British Airways, Europe’s largest airlines, reduced flights as the Iraq conflict and SARS discouraged air travel. Ryanair’s passenger count in the 12 months ended April 30 was 16.1m.

Shares of Ryanair are down 8.9% so far this year.

Rival KLM Royal Dutch Airlines NV, Europe’s number four full-service airline, said yesterday that April passenger traffic, measured as the number of passengers multiplied by the distance flown, fell 7% from April 2002. KLM’s load factor fell 6.8 percentage points to 74%. Ryanair took over KLM’s Buzz low-cost unit on April 1. It suspended flights at the business last month and resumed services on May 1.

European airlines’ international scheduled passenger traffic fell 0.3% in the week ended April 27, slowing from the declines of the previous six weeks, as passengers started to resume flying in Europe and across the Atlantic, the Association of European Airlines said yesterday. Ryanair isn’t a member of the association.

Meanwhile, British Airways Plc, Europe’s largest airline, said passenger traffic fell 2% last month as war in Iraq, slowing economies and the SARS outbreak crimped demand for air travel.

Premium, or first and business-class, traffic led the drop, falling 26.4% from April 2002. Economy-class traffic fell 2.7%. The carrier cut seating capacity 1.3%. The proportion of seats filled and cargo space used, or overall load factor, rose 0.7 percentage points to 64.6%.

British Airways is cutting flights and accelerating a 23% reduction in its workforce to lower costs as the war in Iraq and SARS scared off customers while firms cut travel budgets.