Irish carrier Ryanair carried 168.6m passengers in its financial year to March 2023, it’s highest ever figure and 20m more than it flew before the pandemic. The performance is in line with the 168m it guided at the start of January and reflects 12 months of relatively ‘normal’ activities, given travel restrictions in Europe eased after the Omicron-related clampdown at the start of 2022. Ryanair has flown more passengers than in 2019 every month since March 2022. Its previous passenger high was the 148.6m it flew in 2019. Passenger load factor of 93%, while 11 points higher than the previous year, remains two points below 2019 levels. Ryanair flew 12% more passengers in March than in the same month last year, a month also impacted by the cancelling of its Ukraine flights following Russia’s invasion of the country.<br/>
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Air Vanuatu customers face several days of delays after its only Boeing 737 plane broke down, leaving passengers stranded in Auckland, Sydney and Port Vila. Passengers will face delays for “at least another few days,” the airline said after the plane broke down on Friday. The flight, which was due to take off from Brisbane and land in Port Vila, was cancelled due to a mechanical issue, which took the aircraft out of service. Air Vanuatu operates one 737-800 aircraft, which flies all mid-haul routes from Port Vila, including to New Zealand and Australia. The aircraft is currently in Australia awaiting parts that are being sourced with support from Boeing offices in the US and Australia, the airline said in a statement on Monday. The airline said flights are unable to be resumed until the timeline for replacement parts is confirmed by Boeing. This has resulted in a weekend of flight cancellations, and passengers are stranded across the network.<br/>
Investigators in Papua New Guinea are probing a serious inflight pressurisation event involving an Air Niugini Fokker 70. The aircraft was operating a domestic flight from Port Moresby International Airport to Mt Hagen airport on 20 February, according to a preliminary report from the country’s Accident Investigation Commission (AIC), which has classified the incident as serious. Upon reaching the vicinity of Mt. Hagen, which sits more than 5,300ft above Port Moresby, the crew decided to return to the departure airport owing to inclement weather. As the crew began their descent to Port Moresby, they noticed that the landing elevation settings had not been set for an arrival, but were at 5,500ft – the setting originally meant for the higher elevation Mt Hagen airport. On final approach, the aircraft’s cabin pressure differential stood at around 6 PSI, much higher than the 0.13 PSI mandated for landing. The crew then terminated the approach and initiated a go-around, while reducing the cabin pressure differential readings. The aircraft then landed. According to the AIC, four passengers sustained serious injuries, while another 18 had minor injuries. The four crew members and remaining 45 passengers were uninjured by the incident. “The investigation is continuing and will include environmental, operational, organisational, and technical aspects and other areas as applicable,” states the AIC. Cirium fleets data shows the Fokker jet to be over 26 years old. It was delivered to KLM Cityhopper in 1996, before entering the Air Niugini fleet in early 2016. The carrier has four Fokker 70s in its fleet, alongside three Fokker 100s, one Boeing 737-800, as well as two 767s. <br/>