DUBLIN, Jan 4 (Reuters) – Ryanair (RYA.I) flew 11.5 million passengers in December, up 3% on its earlier pre-COVID excessive for the Christmas journey interval, Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers stated on Wednesday.
Ryanair expects to fly 166.5 million passengers within the 12 months to the tip of March, far forward of its earlier file of 149 million.
It has reported flying extra passengers than the corresponding pre-pandemic interval in every of the final 9 months.
CEO Michael O’Leary had flagged at the beginning of December that Christmas bookings had been working forward of 2019 ranges, with common air fares additionally up by a low double-digit proportion as passengers travelled with out restrictions for the primary time in three years.
Ryanair flew 9.5 million passengers final December and simply 1.9 million in December 2020.
The common proportion of empty seats per flight held regular at 8% for the second successive month in December and in comparison with 5% in December 2019.
Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Enhancing by Andrew Heavens
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