Ryanair’s growth spurt continued last month as its April traffic rose by 10 per cent compared with the same month last year.
The airline yesterday said that it had 9.9 million customers last month despite the attacks on Brussels in March dampening demand for flying in Europe.
Its April load factor — a measure of efficiency — was up by 2 percentage points compared with the previous year and its rolling annual traffic to April grew 17 per cent to 107.4 million customers.
“Strong traffic during the Easter period drove growth in the airline despite terrorism fears in the wake of Brussels affecting European air travel,” Michael O’Leary, the Ryanair chief executive, said yesterday.
Mr O’Leary predicted last month that Ryanair’s profits would fall by between €10 and €20 million in the January to March period as a result of the Brussels attacks and air traffic control strikes.
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IAG, an airline group which owns Aer Lingus and British Airways, recently cited the Brussels attacks as a factor in trimming its growth plans for the year.
“The Brussels effect has dampened demand into April-May, though funnily enough it did not create as much disruption over the Easter period, but I think that’s because a lot of families had holidays booked,” Mr O’Leary said.
He said that Brussels Zaventem airport, which was attacked by suicide bombers in March, would be back up to full capacity by the end of next month and that the impact on summer demand would depend on whether there were further attacks.
“The danger for us is that you have one or two more of these events somewhere in Europe during the summer and that will affect confidence,” he said.
Asked if he was concerned about summer demand, Mr O’Leary said that he was “always worried about [consumer] confidence . . . business is going great and when business is going great, that’s when you worry”.
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Ryanair is due to announce its results for the year to the end of March on May 23. The airline is on a significant growth curve and is set to overtake easyJet as the biggest carrier in the UK by the end of the year, according to Mr O’Leary.
An order of 200 Boeing 737s will come into circulation between 2019 and 2023 as the airline expands its number of bases across Europe.
Ryanair is also broadening its charm offensive by simplifying baggage fees and launching its first loyalty scheme in decades because its “get nice” policy has resulted in a huge rise in profits and passenger numbers.
Mr O’Leary has credited the company’s customer service drive with lifting annual passenger numbers to 106 million and shrinking its average percentage of empty seats per flight to 8 per cent, down from 18 per cent.