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European budget airlines Ryanair Holdings PLC and Wizz Air Holdings PLC on Monday both said they flew more passengers last month than a year before, though Wizz said its load factor was hurt by the conflict in Gaza. Budapest-based Wizz Air reported a load factor of 90.0% in February, down from 93.3% in February 2023. It blamed the need to reallocate flight capacity from routes to Israel due to its conflict with Hamas, amid more capacity flown overall than anticipated. It also cited some aircraft groundings for engine inspections. Wizz said it carried 4.4 million passengers last month, up 16% from 3.8 million a year before. Capacity, however, increased by 20% to 4.9 million seats from 4.1 million. On a rolling 12-month basis, Wizz carried 61.5 million passengers at a 90.2% load factor, improved from 49.3 million at a 87.3% a year before. Larger peer Ryanair said it carried 11.1 million passengers in February, up 4.7% from 10.6 million a year before, at an unchanged load factor of 92%. On rolling 12-month basis, Ryanair carried 182.6 million shares, up 9.2% from 167.2 million. It load factor ticked up to 94% from 93%. Wizz Air shares were down 0.5% to 2,224.00 pence in London early Monday. Ryanair shares were down 3.6% at €19.34 in Frankfurt. Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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