Ryanair's April traffic up 9 pct to 12.3 mln passengers

DUBLIN, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Ryanair carried 12.3 million passengers in April, up 9 percent over the same period last year, said the Ireland-headquartered airline on Wednesday.

The airline's load factor, or the occupancy rate of its flights, for April remained unchanged at 96 percent compared with a year ago, said Ryanair in a press release on its website.

The continuous growth of Ryanair's traffic is fuelled by its lower fares, said Kenny Jacobs, an official with the airline, adding that Ryanair customers can expect more low fares and an improved customer experience in 2018.

During the January-April period of this year, Ryanair carried a total of 40.2 million passengers, up 6.63 percent or 2.5 million people more while compared with the corresponding period last year, according to the data released by the company.

Last year Ryanair carried a total of 129 million passengers, losing its crown as Europe's largest airline to Germany's Lufthansa by 1 million fewer passengers.

Ryanair has vowed to regain the lost crown before 2019. Late last month Ryanair decided to order 25 more Boeing 737 MAX 200 aircraft as part of its efforts to increase its traffic volume. Currently Ryanair is the largest low-cost flight operator in Europe with a fleet size of around 430 planes, all sourced from Boeing. Enditem