Budget carriers Ryanair and Wizz Air entered the new year with a surge in passenger carryings in the absence of Covid travel curbs.
Ryanair reported a 69% rise in passengers to 11.8 million in January from 7 million in the same month in 2022 when restrictions were imposed due to the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
The airline’s passenger load factor rose by 12 percentage points to 91% as it operated more than 68,200 flights during the month.
The January total gave Ryanair a rolling 12 month total of 165.3 million passengers, up 111% year-on-year.
Wizz Air saw January carryings increase by 73% from 2.4 million to 4.1 million passengers with a load factor of 86%.
This gave the eastern and central European low cost carrier a rolling 12 month total of 47.4 million passengers.
The airline announced expansion to Turkey from March with new routes to Istanbul, Antalya and Dalaman in Turkey from the UK, Hungary, Romania and UAE.