Ryanair says it carried 4.96 million passengers in November, up 15% from the same month last year.
The load factor - the percentage of seats filled - edged up one point to 80% in November, though it has average 82% over the past 12 months.
Separate figures from British Airways show that it carried 3.4% fewer passengers in November 2009 compared with November 2008. But its planes were 75.9% full last month - an increase of 1.5 points on the same month last year.
BA also reported that numbers travelling in business and first-class seats on long-haul flights were showing signs of improvement, with levels above those of last year. The biggest fall last month was in Asia Pacific traffic which was down 23.2%.
