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Ryanair Holdings PLC on Wednesday said last month it became the first European airline to carry 200 million passengers in a year, as the budget airline and smaller peer Wizz Air Holdings PLC reported March traffic statistics. Dublin-based Ryanair said it operated more than 84,000 flights in March, carrying 15.0 million passengers, up 10% from 13.6 million a year before. Load factor held steady at 93%. That brought Ryanair’s rolling 12-month passenger tally to 200.2 million, up 9.0% from 183.7 million in the previous 12-month period. Load factor similarly stayed at 94%. Budapest-based Wizz Air carried 5.5 million passengers in March, up 6.7% from 5.3 million a year before. However, load factor slipped slightly to 90.5% from 90.8%. On a rolling 12-month basis, Wizz carried 69.5 million passengers, up 1.1% from 68.8 million. Load factor for the 12-month period improved to 91.2% from 90.1%. Wizz Air said the first quarter of financial year 2026 has started strongly, helped by the Easter holiday travel season falling entirely in April. Easter is on April 20 this year, while it was on March 31 last year. Wizz Air’s financial year begins on April 1. It added that summer bookings ‘look encouraging’, with load factors for the core summer months two to three percentage points higher than at the same time last year. Ryanair shares were 0.5% lower at €19.09 each on Wednesday morning in Dublin. Wizz Air was up 0.1% in London at 1,439.00 pence. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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