Low-cost carriers Ryanair and Wizz Air are continuing to lead the recovery of Europe’s aviation sector after seeing strong passenger traffic in June.
Ryanair Holdings carried 15.9 million passengers in June, compared with just 5.3 million during the same month last year. Last month’s traffic was also above the 14.2 million passengers carried in June 2019 as the airline operated a total of 88,500 flights.
The Irish-based company, which also owns Buzz, Lauda and Malta Air, recorded a load factor of 95 per cent during June. Although this was down on the 97 per cent load factor it achieved in June 2019.
Both Ryanair’s passenger numbers and load factors have been rising steadily month-by-month since January when the company carried seven million passengers with a load factor of 79 per cent.
Meanwhile, Europe’s fastest-growing major airline Wizz Air carried 4.3 million passengers in June, up by 179 per cent on June 2021. It also recorded a load factor of 86.1 per cent last month, which was an increase from 64 per cent a year ago.
Last month, the Hungary-based airline said it was expecting fares to increase by “upper single digits” between July and September, compared with summer 2019, as the industry copes with higher costs alongside increasing demand from travellers.
Wizz has also recently announced the launch of new routes from Rome and Vienna to Dammam in Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, fellow low-cost carrier easyJet has been having a harder time after recently facing criticism for a high number of last-minute flight cancellations – the airline’s chief operating officer Peter Bellew resigned from his position last week.