(Reuters)-Dublin- Ryanair had its biggest month ever in June, flying 15.9 million passengers, up from 5.3 million a year ago and breaking a previous record set in May.
Its load factor, which gauges how well an airline fills available seats, surpassed 95% for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
The Irish airline, Europe’s largest by passenger numbers, claimed it carried over 88,500 people in June, up from 92 percent a month earlier when it flew 15.4 million.
Ryanair’s load factor was at least 96 percent a month before the pandemic, and it reached 97 percent in June 2019.
The low-cost carrier intends to carry 15% more passengers this summer than in the same season last year, and will carry a record 165 million passengers in the fiscal year ending March 2023.
It handled just under 100 million passengers in the fiscal year ending March 2022, with a pre-COVID high of 149 million.
Ryanair stated last week that a first wave of strikes by cabin crew unions in Belgium, Spain, Portugal, France, and Italy affected fewer than 2% of its flights.
It also said on Saturday that the 12 more strike days planned by some Spanish cabin staff for later this month should cause “little (if any) trouble.”
