Ryanair and Wizz again flew fewer than a million passengers in March

Ryanair and Wizz Air carried fewer than 1 million passengers between them in March for the second month in a row, with heavy restrictions on international travel bringing the European aviation sector to a virtual standstill. Some 500,000 passengers were counted across the Ryanair group – a fall of 91% year on year – while Wizz welcomed 480,000, which equates to a fall of 73%, according to figures released by the low-cost carriers today. For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, the most significant effects of the Covid-19 crisis are starting to be seen in the operators’ prior-year figures. So, while Ryanair carried 5.5m passengers in March 2020, that was down from 10.9m in March 2019. Compared with the latter figure, its March 2021 traffic was down 95%. Similarly, Wizz Air carried 1.75m passengers in March 2020, down from 2.72m in the same month of 2019. Compared with the latter figure, its March 2021 traffic was down 82%.<br/>