Ryanair, the Ireland-based low fares airline, has claimed that the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) report confirms that it remains the world’s favourite airline.
According to IATA’s latest World Airline Transport Statistics, Ryanair carried more international passengers than any other airline. The Irish budget airline carried 81.3m international passengers last year, almost 29m more than second-placed Easyjet (52.7m) and 30m more than third-placed Lufthansa (50.7m).
According to the IATA statistics, Ryanair carried more international passengers than: EasyJet, Iberia and SAS combined (< 76m); British Airways, Air France and Alitalia combined (< 77m); Lufthansa and Air Berlin combined (< 74m) and over eight times more passengers than Irish regional carrier Aer Lingus (9.6m).
Meanwhile, Ryanair said that it will carry more than 84.6m passengers this year. The airline also celebrated its position by releasing 100, 000 seats for sale across its European network, at prices starting from EUR19.99 for travel in July & August. These low fare seats are available for booking on the Ryanair.com website until midnight Thursday (12 June).
Ryanair’s Robin Kiely said: ‘IATA has once again confirmed that Ryanair is the world’s favourite airline, carrying more international scheduled passengers than any other carrier. Even the combined traffic of EasyJet, Iberia and SAS is still less than Ryanair’s total traffic.
Consumers choose Ryanair for our lowest fares, great routes choice and our improving customer experience, including our new website, allocated seating, a free 2nd small carry-on bag allowance and PED (portable electric device) use on all flights, as Ryanair continues to deliver so much more than just the lowest fares for our 81.3m customers.’
The Irish airline, which was in the news last year for poor customer service and treatment, said earlier this year that its customer improvement initiatives including its low fares offer have proved effective as the airline carried record numbers of customers since last December.
