Ryanair traffic climbs in May to 10.6m passengers

Passenger numbers at Ryanair continued to rise in May as the company carried 10.6 million customers during the month.

That was a 12 per cent rise compared to May last year, and pushed its rolling annual traffic to 108.5 million customers, an increase of 16 per cent.

Load factor, a measure of full aircraft are, increased by 2 percentage points year on year to 94 per cent.

Chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs said the increase came despite ongoing disruptions due to air traffic control strikes in France.

The company is currently in its third year of its “Always getting better” customer service programme that has seen it cut fees, introduce business travel packages and loosen restrictions on hand luggage for travellers.

One of its most recent changes has been a reduction on checked bag fees, with passengers on domestic flights under two hours seeing the fees fall by 50 per cent.