Ryanair has become the first European airline to carry 200 million passengers in a single year.
The total came as Europe’s largest carrier saw March volumes rise by 10% to 15 million over the equivalent month last year.
Last month’s load factor of 93% was the same as March 2024 as more than 84,000 flights were operated.
Total carryings for the 12 months ending in March were up by 9% to 200.2 million.
Meanwhile, budget rival Wizz Air described summer bookings as “encouraging” as the airline reported a rise in March passenger carryings.
Last month’s load factor of 90.5% remained steady year-on-year despite both a return to capacity growth and Easter moving from March to April, according to the carrier.
Fares for this month are up in the “mid-to-high teens” due to Easter falling entirely in April this year.
“Summer bookings look encouraging, with load factors currently 2-3 percentage points higher than this time last year in the core summer months,” the central and eastern European airline said.
Passenger numbers rose by 6.4% in March to 5.1 million as capacity increased by 6.7%.
The airline reported a 2.2% rise in the rolling 12 month passenger total to 63.4 million.