Passenger traffic at Ryanair up 6% despite strikes

Passenger traffic at budget airline Ryanair was up 6 per cent to 12.6 million in September compared with the same month last year, despite the cancellation of 400 flights due to industrial action, the company has said.

Ryanair said load factor, a measure of how full its planes are, remained at 97 per cent for the period.

Ryanair owns a 75 per cent stake in low-cost airline Laudamotion, which was founded by former Formula One champion Niki Lauda.

When passengers carried by Lauda were taken into account, total traffic rose 11 per cent to 13.1 million for September. Lauda traffic was 500,000 customers with a 93 per cent load factor.

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“Two days of unnecessary pilot and cabin crew strikes on September 12th and 28th caused over 400 flight cancellations in September,” the airline noted in a statement.

Ryanair spokesman Kenny Jacobs said it was "regrettable" that there was disruption during the period.

“During the entire month of September, while we cancelled just over 400 flights, we completed over 68,000 scheduled flights with more than 80 per cent of these flights arriving on time.”