European airlines report record passenger traffic – Kommersant

Today, two European airlines, Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair and its Hungarian competitor Wizz Air, reported a record number of passengers carried in one month. Ryanair transported 18 million people in July, which was an absolute monthly record for it. Compared to July last year, the company’s passenger traffic increased by 11%. The load factor for Ryanair flights in July was 96%. In turn, Wizz Air informed about a record number of 6 million passengers carried in July, the flight load factor is 94.9%. Compared to the same period last year, traffic growth was 19.8%.

Experts expected busy airlines this summer after more than two years of coronavirus lockdowns that have brought passenger air travel to a virtual halt in many parts of the world and pushed airlines to the brink of bankruptcy. Back in late June, Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific published data on passenger traffic in May, saying that it expects to make a profit in the first half of the year. This will be the company’s first half-year profit in three years. Cathay Pacific carried 1.42 million passengers last May, up 2,345% from May 2022. In the first five months of the year, the airline carried 3281% more passengers than in the same period a year earlier – 6.3 million versus 185 thousand people.

Evgeniy Khvostik