Budget airlines see March carryings rise despite Middle East conflict

Ryanair and Wizz Air both reported higher passenger numbers in March despite conflict in the Middle East and the prospect of rising fuel costs.

 

Numbers flown by Ryanair grew by 5% over the same month last year to 15.8 million passengers.

 

Europe’s largest airline operated more than 88,000 flights in March with a load factor unchanged over a year earlier at 93%.

 

The performance gave the no-frills carrier a rolling annual total up 4% to 208.4 million passengers with a 94% load factor.

 

Budget rival Wizz Air saw carryings rise by 8.4% to 5.51 million passengers.

 

The monthly total came as capacity increased by 9.1% year on year to 6.12 million seats.

 

The March load factor was 90%, down 0.5 percentage points.

 

The results came as Ryanair group chief executive Michael O’Leary was reported as warning that jet fuel supplies could face disruption from May if the ongoing Iran conflict continues.          

 

O’Leary, speaking to Sky News, suggested that any significant disruption to jet fuel supplies was not anticipated before next month.

 

“The fuel companies are happy there won’t be any disruption until early May,” he said.

 

“But if the war continues, we do run the risk of supply disruptions in Europe in May and June and obviously we hope the war will finish sooner than that and that the risk to supply will be eliminated.”

 

Asked about the impact of potential shortages, he said: “It’s almost impossible to know. If the war finishes and the Strait of Hormuz is opened by the middle or end of April, then there’s no risk to supply.

 

“If the war continues, and the disruption to supply continues, we think there is a reasonable risk that maybe 10%, 20%, 25% of our supplies might be at risk through May and June.

 

“So, like everybody else in the industry, we hope this war ends sooner rather than later.”

 

O’Leary also repeated calls for Air Passenger Duty to be scrapped as the tax was hiked on Wednesday.

 

He said: “While Ryanair is growing modestly in London, many UK regional airports are being hammered by Rachel Reeves’ stupid decision to increase APD from today. 

 

“This APD hike makes UK air travel even less competitive versus countries like Sweden, Hungary, Slovakia and regional Italy, where governments are abolishing enviro taxes and being rewarded with rapid traffic, tourism and jobs growth.”

 

O’Leary was speaking as Ryanair introduced four new routes from Stansted and one from Luton with one new aircraft based as the Essex airport.

 

“Ryanair has proposals on the table to grow UK traffic by 33% to 80 million passengers over the next five years, but this growth won’t happen while the UK maintains Europe’s highest and most harmful aviation tax rates,” he warned.