Ryanair traffic up 10% in September despite cancellations

Beleaguered budget airline Ryanair posted a 10% jump in traffic for September on Tuesday as the load factor rose.

The company, which was recently forced to cancel thousands of flights due to an issue with the scheduling of its pilots' holidays, said traffic increased to 11.8m last month, while the load factor - which gauges how full the planes are - ticked up to 97% from 95%.

On a rolling 12-month basis, traffic to September grew 12% to 127.3m customers.

Chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs said the latest figures include the 2,100 flight cancellations announced for September and October.

"We have now refunded/re-accommodated 98% of customers who were impacted in September and October. The remaining 2% of affected customers have yet to contact us. We again sincerely apologise to our customers for these deeply regretted cancellations."

At 0815 BST, the shares were up 3.9% to €16.90.