Ryanair passenger traffic up 9% year on year in April

Traffic at low-cost airline Ryanair increased by 9 per cent in April compared with the same month last year, according to its latest report on passenger numbers.

The number of customers who travelled with the airline grew to 12.3 million, compared with 11.3 million in April last year.

Load factor – a measure of how full flights are – was unchanged at 96 per cent. Rolling annual traffic to April grew 8 per cent to 131.4 million customers.

Ryanair chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs said the airline would seek to roll out more "always getting better" improvements – a reference to the airline's latest marketing strategy.

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The airline recently exercised options to buy 25 Boeing 737 MAX 200 aircraft, in a move which will bring its total firm orders for the aircraft up to 135 and allow it to grow its traffic to 200 million customers a year by 2024.

The aircraft, which Ryanair dubbed “game-changers”, are valued at more than $3 billion (€2.5 billion) at current list prices, and the order means Ryanair has now ordered more than 650 Boeing 737s since first partnering with Boeing in 1994.

"The game-changer has eight more seats than our current 189-seat Boeing 737-800NG and incorporates the latest-technology engines and winglets which will reduce fuel consumption and noise emissions, ensuring we remain Europe's greenest, cleanest airline, while allowing us to continue to lower fares as we grow to 200 million annual customers by 2024," said Ryanair chief financial officer Neil Sorahan.

The first of these aircraft will come on stream in the first half of 2019. Ryanair operates an all-Boeing fleet, the youngest in Europe, with an average age of 6½ years.