European discount airlines on the rise

Ryanair: Stable growth and ambitious targets

Europe’s largest low-cost airline, Ryanair, carried 13 million passengers in November, an 11% increase on the same period last year. The company’s load factor remained stable at 92%, the same as the previous year.

In the first eight months of the 2024-2025 financial year, 142.2 million passengers chose Ryanair, an increase of 9%. The Irish airline has set ambitious annual targets: CEO Micheal O’Leary says it can expect to carry up to 200 million passengers by the end of the financial year, in March. This will require an additional 45.8-47.8 million passengers based on seasonal trends, which seems realistic given the current pace of expansion.

Wizz Air: Growth with tighter capacity

Wizz Air carried 4.84 million passengers in November, up 1.7% year-on-year. The result is remarkable given that the airline’s capacity fell by the same amount, by 1.7%. However, average load factor rose to 91.5%, an improvement of 3.1%.

The capacity reduction is due to problems with Pratt & Whitney engines, which have forced the grounding of several Wizz Air aircraft. Despite this difficulty, the company was able to expand its passenger traffic, which praises the strategy of CEO József Váradi.