Ryanair passenger numbers up 34%

June 3, 2005 Irish low fares airline, Ryanair, has reported that passenger numbers for May 2005 are up 34%. This represented the largest increase in traffic for over a year, and comes after a string of good news for the airline during the week; most notably reporting record profits.

Ryanair carried 2.9 million passengers in May compared to 2.17 million in the same period last year. This was partly helped by an increase in the number of routes over the year. Ryanair has been aggressively adding routes from its new European base in Shannon and throughout southern Spain over the past year. The airline now operates 12 routes from Shannon and over 50 from Spain.

Load factor also increased, from 81% to 82%, as did the percentage of tickets sold on the internet. Internet sales now account for 98% of total ticket sales, up from 97% in May 2004.

The airline, which operates over 200 routes, revealed after tax profits of €268.9m (US $332m) earlier this week and record revenue of €1.34bn ($1.66bn).