Ryanair handles record 72 million passengers in 2010

Largest international carriers by passenger number: 2009

Source: IATA

Ryanair was the fifth largest carrier worldwide by total passengers in 2009, behind only Southwest, American, Delta and China Southern and significantly ahead of United, Lufthansa and US Airways. Ryanair handled around 12 million more passengers than Lufthansa and 17 million more passengers than Air France in 2009.

Largest carriers by passenger number (domestic and international): 2009

Source: IATA

CEO Michael O'Leary has continuously stated the carrier has benefitted from the recession. "The old analysis is that in a recession people stop flying, or fly less. In fact it's not true. They just become much more price sensitive and switch off the high-fare carriers and on to Ryanair," he said. The carrier added that it expects to continue to gain market share across Europe from the "big three" network carriers - Air France-KLM, British Airways and Lufthansa.

Around 4.3 million pax in weather-affected Dec-2010

Ryanair handled 67.7 million passengers in the 11 months to Nov-2010, representing year-on-year growth of 12.1%. This implies that around 4.3 million passengers were handled in Dec-2010, in a month that saw carriers' affected by snow-related cancellations at various European airports. Dec-2010 traffic data has yet to be released by the carrier.

Ryanair fleet and passenger growth : 2009 vs 2010

Month	2009 pax	2010 pax	Rolling 12 months pax	2009 load Factor	2010 load factor	Rolling 12 month LF
January	4,075,531	4,438,287	65,644,800	69%	70%	82%
February	4,128,368	4,372,353	65,888,785	78%	75%	82%
March	4,698,067	5,313,281	66,503,999	77%	79%	82%
April	5,281,247	6,179,309	67,402,061	82%	83%	82%
May	5,513,360	6,470,111	68,358,812	81%	81%	82%
June	5,836,355	6,713,559	69,236,016	85%	84%	82%
July	6,725,066	7,607,428	70,118,378	89%	88%	82%
August	6,883,814	7,681,485	70,916,049	90%	89%	82%
September	6,119,510	6,841,547	71,638,086	85%	86%	82%
October	6,162,799	7,024,838	72,500,125	85%	85%	82%
November	4,961,949	5,060,424	72,598,600	80%	80%	82%
December	4,895,978
Total	65,282,044	Approx 72,000,000

Source: Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation and Ryanair

Also in 2010, Ryanair reported a new monthly record of more than 7.7 million passengers in Aug-2010. The busiest day of travel for Europe's largest LCC was on 30-Jul-2010 when more than 255,000 passengers flew on 1400 Ryanair services. The busiest booking day was 26-Apr-2010 when 310,000 bookings were made on the carrier's website.

Pax and fleet growth slowing but off a large base

Ryanair's growth trajectory is expected to continue albeit at a slower pace, with 2010 likely to mark the last calendar year of double-digit traffic growth.

Ryanair passenger numbers (mill) and passenger growth (%): 2003 to 2014

Source: Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation and Ryanair

Ryanair, upon the release of its 1HFY2011 financial results in Nov-2010, had stated it expected to report passenger growth of 11% in FY2011 (12 months to Mar-2011) to approximately 73.5 million before growth slows to the single digits. However, Ryanair stated it would continue it growth trajectory, adding 6.5 million passengers in FY2012 and 5.0 million passengers in FY2013. This would represent fleet and traffic growth of 28% by 2013.

Ryanair fleet and passenger growth

FY to Mar	Total fleet	Disposals	Pax traffic	Pax growth
2010	232	-3	66.5m	+14%
2011	272	-10*	73.5m	+11%
2012	294	-3*	80.0m	+9%
2013	299	-10*	85.0m	+6%

Source: Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation and Ryanair
* 2011 to 2013 -23a/c disposals (17 Op. leases and 6 a/c sales)

Meanwhile, the carrier, also in Nov-2010, raised its full-year profit outlook with the carrier now expecting to exceed the upper end of its previous forecast range of EUR350 million to EUR375 million, to report a profit of EUR380-400 million subject to 4Q yields.