Ryanair and Wizz Air book record number of passengers in August

Ryanair and Wizz Air saw record passenger numbers last month as people shrugged off the pressures of rising living costs in favour of their holidays abroad.

In August, a total of 20.5 million people travelled with Dublin-based Ryanair, an increase of 8 percent compared to the same month in 2023.

Meanwhile, Wizz Air reported customer numbers rose 1 percent to 6.2 million in August, despite engine problems affecting capacity.

Aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney began recalling thousands of turbofan engines last year over concerns about contaminated metal parts.

Wizz Air founder and CEO Joszef Varadi warned four months ago that engine problems could plague the Hungarian company for at least another two years.

Although Wizz Air was forced to temporarily ground a number of aircraft due to the issue, the company still carried 62.1 million people on an annual basis, an increase of 9.6 percent compared to the previous year.

Ryanair flew 192 million aircraft in the same period, compared to 177.4 million the year before.

Ryanair said in July it expected flight prices to be “significantly lower” this summer due to “more frugal” consumer behaviour.

Recently, CEO Michael O’Leary predicted that the company’s ticket prices would be 5 percent lower than in the peak quarter of July to September.

He has also called on the new Labour government to abolish passenger taxes and ask the European Commission to improve air traffic control to boost the aviation sector.

The outspoken boss said scrapping the APD would help Ryanair achieve its goal of increasing UK passenger numbers to 65 million a year and creating 1,000 new jobs for British pilots, cabin crew and engineers by 2030.

At the end of August, Ryanair announced four new routes to London: Dubrovnik (Croatia), Linz (Austria), Reggio (Italy) and Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) – from London Stansted this winter.

Europe’s largest airline is also reportedly considering launching a package holiday offering, although O’Leary has long opposed the idea.

Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said Ryanair is looking to “emulate the success of EasyJet” as it moves to offering all-inclusive holidays.

She added: ‘Focusing on family and couples holidays could also be seen as a way to move away from big drinking binges and singles holidays, given the increased disruption that excessive alcohol consumption is causing at Ryanair.’

Ryanair shares rose 0.8 percent to €15.86, while Wizz Air Holdings shares were down 0.85 percent at £12.77 early Tuesday afternoon.