Low-cost airline Ryanair saw its busiest ever month in June 2024, flying more than 19 million passengers for the first time in a single month in its 40-year history. The Dublin-based budget airline transported 19.3 million passengers across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East in June 2024. This compares to 17.4 million in June 2023, representing a year-on-year increase of 11%.
The latest set of figures means the Ryanair group of airlines (which includes Buzz, Lauda Europe, Malta Air, and Ryanair UK) has flown 188.8 million people over the past rolling 12-month period to June 30, 2024. This represents an overall increase of 9% over the 173.4 million who traveled with the company in the same period in 2022/23.
The group’s overall network load factor remained steady at 95% – the same figure as was seen in June 2023.
The increases and the overall success of Ryanair’s June flying program were achieved despite the Irish company suffering excessive delays and being forced to cancel multiple flights at the end of June due to staff shortages that affected several air traffic control centers across Europe.
On June 27, 2024, alone, Ryanair saw 30% of its 3,500 flights delayed and 16 aircraft left out of base, meaning the planes missed airport landing curfew times and had to either reposition or be replaced by other aircraft from other bases to maintain the schedule. Then on June 28, 2024, almost 25% of the carrier’s first wave of departures from airports across Europe were delayed, which the airline blamed on equipment failure at the main air traffic control hub for Europe based in Maastricht, Netherlands.
Neal McMahon, Ryanair’s chief operations officer, called the delays and cancellations “unacceptable” and urged European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen “to take action to urgently reform Europe’s shambolic ATC services.” He also called on Raul Medina, Eurocontrol’s director general, to explain the string of recent problems and “work to deliver an efficient and effective ATC service to Europe’s citizens.”
As Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers, the Ryanair group of airlines forecasts it will fly a record 198 million to 200 million people for its financial year ending March 2025, up 8% to 9% on the previous year.
The final figure depends on how many new Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft it receives from the US manufacturer, which is suffering from delays in aircraft deliveries due to the highly publicized quality control issues following the January 2024 incident involving an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9.