Ryanair monthly traffic slips to lowest level since July as Omicron bites

Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair carried 9.5 million passengers in December as demand was clipped in the holiday month by concerns around the Omicron variant of Covid. Ryanair, which has enjoyed a strong return in traffic over the second half of 2021, had originally expected to fly between 10 and 11m passengers in December. However last month it lowered expectations to between 9 and 9.5m as a result of fresh travel restrictions imposed in December. It marks Ryanair’s lowest monthly passenger level since July and follows four consecutive months where it had flown more than 10m. Similarly December’s load factor of 81% was five percentage points down on November, a further sign of the pressure on demand in the month. Ryanair carried just over 62m passengers over the second half of 2021. This compares with a little over 10m over the first half, when tight lockdowns were in place across Europe. It means Ryanair carried around 20m more passengers in the calendar year than it did in 2020, but less than half the 154m it flew in the 2019 calendar year. The Irish carrier has previously indicated it expects to carry only between 6 and 7m in January – rather than the 10m originally envisaged – having cut its capacity for the month amid the Omicron restrictions.<br/>