Ryanair and Wizz Air see increase in passengers booking flights last month

04 March 2024 , 11:04

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Ryanair and Wizz Air reported continued disruption due to hostilities in Gaza (Image: PA Wire/PA Images)

Budget airlines Wizz Air and Ryanair saw an increase in passengers booking flights with them last month.

Ryanair, the larger of these two companies, had 11.1 million passengers travelling on their planes last month that's up 5% from 2023s 10.6 million February customers. They kept 92% of their seats filled, which is the same as it was this time next year.

Ryanair also said it had to cancel fewer flights because of the Israel-Gaza conflict than they've had to since before the Hamas attacks in October, 2023. They had to scrap 800 flights because of the on-going conflict in February, down from Januarys 950.

Wizz Air reported a 15.8% increase in passenger numbers last month, compared to February 2023 that's 4.4 million passengers. They managed to fill 90.0% of their seats. Wizz Air said that its filled seat percentage was "impacted by reallocated Israel capacity". The airline also revealed that it carried more passengers than predicted over the month.

Wizz Air announced that its emissions went up 5.1% per km for each passenger to 51.4 grams. Its total emissions were 409,624 tonnes, a rise of 21.3% compared to a year earlier. Describing themselves as environmentally conscious, Wizz Air declared: "Wizz Air continues to consistently report the lowest CO2 emissions per passenger/km among competitor airlines, with 52.0 grams per passenger/km for the rolling 12 months to 29 February 2024."

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The news comes in a month when the airline shared plans to open another training centre in Rome this May. The new centre will be able to train as many as 4,800 pilots each year. In addition, two Airbus A321neos have been added to its fleet in Budapest.

Lawrence Matheson