Ryanair in August flew a record number of passengers for the fourth month in a row as it continued to consolidate its position as Europe's largest airline by passenger numbers.
The low-cost carrier, unlike many airlines, made a point of keeping its pilots and crew up-to-date with their flying hours during the pandemic.
It said it flew 16.9 million passengers in August compared to a pre-Covid peak of 14.9 million in August 2019.
It also compared to the 11.1 million passengers the airline carried the same month last year - an increase of 52%.
Ryanair last week flew an average of over 3,000 flights a day, almost double the 1,600 flights of its next largest rival EasyJet, according to European air traffic control agency Eurocontrol.
The average proportion of empty seats per flight were 4%, for the second month in a row compared to 3% in August 2019.
Ryanair said it operated over 92,800 flights during the month.
So far this year it has carried a total of 148 million passengers - a jump of 236% on the 44 million passengers carried the same time last year.
Its load factor - how many seats it fills on each flight - so far this year is up 14% from 75% to 89%.
Shares in the airline were higher in Dublin trade today.
