Ryanair and easyJet both saw strong growth in passenger numbers last month.
The Irish budget carrier saw number rise by 300,000 or 4% to 8.2 million in May with the load factor up by three percentage points to 85%.
This gave a record rolling annual total of 82.3 million.
Ryanair chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs said: “Ryanair traffic grew by 300,000 to 8.2 million customers in May, thanks to the continuing success of our lower fares and our improving customer experience, including our great new website, allocated seating, a free second small carry-on bag and portable electric device use on all flights.
“We are especially pleased with the 3% point improvement in May load factor, which is slightly ahead of our 2% point growth target.”
EasyJet handled 7.9% more passengers against the same month last year.
Numbers were up from 5.6 million to just over 6 million with the load factor up 1.3 percentage points to 89.4%.
This gave a rolling annual total of 62.8 million passengers with a load factor of 89.9%.