Ryanair Holdings PLC (LSE:RYA), the Dublin-based budget airline, carried 16.0mln passengers in April, up 13% from 14.2ln in April last year and up 27% from March this year making it the third busiest month ever.
This is only the third time it’s flown at least 16mln passengers in a month; last July and August it carried 16.8mln and 16.9mln passengers respectively.
The airline said this April was hurt by strikes by French air traffic controllers, resulting in more than 650 flights with 118,000 passengers being cancelled, while April last year was hurt by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The load factor last month was 94%, up from 91% a year before and 93% from March.
Ryanair expects to trim some flights in July and August due to delivery delays from Boeing but has said it will still hit its target of growing passenger numbers to 185mln this fiscal year from 169mln in the 12 months to end-March.
Shares flew 2.2% higher on the release to 1,319p.