Ryanair sees passenger growth slow in December

Ryanair’s passenger growth has cooled after the low-cost carrier took a hit from thousands of flight cancellations amid a highly publicised staffing crisis last year.

The Irish airline carried 9.3 million passengers in December, figures yesterday showed, which although representing a 3 per cent increase on the same month in 2016, is the slowest pace of growth since March 2014.

Passenger numbers were up 10 per cent to 129 million on a rolling annualised basis, below the growth rate recorded in 2016.

The latest figures come after Ryanair was forced to cancel 20,000 flights in the final quarter of 2017 when it miscalculated pilot leave. Spokesman Kenny Jacobs said: “Ryanair’s December traffic grew by 3 per cent to 9.3m customers, while our load factor jumped 1 per cent to 95 per cent, on the back of lower fares in December.

“Ryanair customers can look forward to even lower fares for 2018 and we urge all customers who wish to book their summer 2018 holidays to do so now.”