Ryanair traffic and load factor rise in January

Traffic at budget airline Ryanair rose 17% in January as the load factor ticked higher.

Traffic increased to 8.77m from 7.5m in the same month a year ago, while the load factor – which gauges how full the planes are – nudged up to 90% form 88%.

On a rolling annual basis, traffic was up 15% to 118.3m customers.

Chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs attributed the increases in traffic and the load factor to lower fares and the continuing success of the airline’s ‘Always Getting Better’ customer experience programme.

“Customers can look forward to even lower fares when they make advance bookings for summer 2017, so there's never been a better time to book a low fare flight on Ryanair and we urge all customers who wish to book their summer 2017 holidays to do so now on the Ryanair.com website or mobile app, where they can avail of the lowest fares in Europe,” he said.