Ryanair reports busiest month in history despite flight delays last week

Low-cost airline Ryanair saw its busiest ever June, flying more than 19million people for the first time.

The Irish air carrier transported 19.3million passengers across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East in June 2024, compared to 17.4million in June 2023.

It means the group has flown 188.8million people in the past 12 months, a 9 per cent rise from the 173.4 million who travelled with the company the previous year.

This was despite the Dublin-based company suffering excessive delays and axing multiple journeys last week owing to ‘staff shortages’ affecting air traffic control centres across Europe.

On Thursday, Ryanair saw 30 per cent of its 3,500 flights delayed and 16 aircraft out of base, meaning the planes missed airport landing curfew times.

A quarter of its first wave departures were delayed the following day, which it partly blamed on ‘equipment failure’ at the ATC Maastricht centre.

Neal McMahon, Ryanair’s chief operations officer, called the delays and cancellations ‘unacceptable’ and urged European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen ‘to take action to urgently reform Europe’s shambolic ATC services.’

He also urged Raul Medina, Eurocontrol’s director general, to explain the recent problems and work to ‘deliver an efficient and effective ATC service to Europe’s citizens.’

Wizz Air passenger numbers dipped in June 

Wizz Air likewise demanded authorities resolve ATC issues after the Hungarian airline said it had experienced 30,000 extra airport slot delay minutes over the prior four weeks compared to the same period last year.

It remarked: ‘Wizz Air was prepared to ensure smooth summer operations for its passengers; however, the air traffic control system seems to be experiencing significant issues this summer.

‘As an industry, we are compelled to escalate these issues with the relevant air traffic management authorities, including Eurocontrol, to ensure proper mitigation actions are implemented to minimise disruptions.’

On Tuesday, Wizz Air revealed its passenger volumes dipped slightly in June, falling 0.2 per cent annually to 5.3 million, while its load factor – share of seats filled – declined by 0.5 percentage points to 91.7 per cent.

But on a 12-month rolling basis, Wizz Air said its customer numbers jumped by 14 per cent to 62.1 million.

Wizz Air shares were 1.6 per cent down at £21.16 ,and Ryanair shares were 1.05 per cent lower at €16.05 on Tuesday morning.