Ryanair traffic grows 9% to 14.8m passengers in July

But growth threatened by Boeing delays, fare cuts and Brexit effect

Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

Passenger traffic at Ryanair grew 9 per cent last month to 14.8 million customers, the company said.

That brings the current rolling annual total to 148.2 million, a 10 per cent rise on last year’s figure of 134.4 million.

The July figures include 14.2 million passengers at the main Ryanair service, which was a rise of 8 per cent, and 600,000 at its Lauda service, which was a 20 per cent rise for the service.

Load factor –a measure of how full the aircraft are – for the mainline service was 97 per cent, with Austrian subsidiary Lauda at 96 per cent.

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The airline operated a total of 81,000 flights during July.

However, Ryanair has faced uncertainty in recent weeks as the company warned delays in delivering the Boeing 737 Max aircraft would hit its traffic growth. Up to 900 jobs are at risk at the company, which blamed the Boeing delays, a slump in airfares and the potential impact of Brexit for the looming cuts.

Positions of 30 flight-deck crews are at risk at Laudamotion, although the subsidiary is not impacted by the Boeing delays.

Ciara O'Brien

Ciara O'Brien

Ciara O'Brien is an Irish Times business and technology journalist