Fare cuts helped drive up Ryanair passenger carryings by more than one million in September.
Europe’s largest budget carrier achieved a 13% hike in passenger numbers to 10.8 million last month over September 2015.
The load factor rose by one percentage point year-on-year to 95%.
The September growth saw Ryanair’s annual rolling passenger total rise by 16% to 113.2 million.
Chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs attributed the higher demand to the airline’s lower fares and its ongoing ‘Always Getting Better’ customer experience initiative.
“As our recent guidance confirmed, we expect average fares to fall by between 10% to 12% in the six months to March 2017,” he said.
Meanwhile, Wizz Air’s September carryings rose by 17.9% year-on-year in September to more than 2.1 million with a load factor of 91.6%.
This brought annual carryings up to 21.8 million, a rise of 19.4%, as the eastern and central European low cost carrier expanded its network to 129 airports with four new destinations, including Eilat in Israel and Faro in Potugal.