Ryanair confirmed that they flew 117m passengers during Januaury-December 2016, putting them in position to overtake the Lufthansa group to become the largest airline in Europe and fifth largest in the world.
When totals are reconfigured following the Lufthansa group’s acquisition of Bussels Airways, they are likely to keep Ryanair in second place for another year. IAG carried 94.9m to end November, including Aer Lingus figures of just over 10m, and Air France/KLM 89.9m. Ryanair plans to carry 200m passengers by 2024.
Ryanair’s first aircraft, Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante ‘EI-BPI.’
Traffic in December grew 20pc to 9.0m customers. Load factor rose three points to 94pc and rolling annual traffic to Dec grew 15pc to 117m customers.
The Lufthansa group passenger total to November was 102.6m compared with 107.78m for Ryanair. Lufthansa has since acquired Brussels Airlines which had 7.1m customers to November.
Ryanair has been larger than the combined Air France/KLM and BA/Iberia groups since 2009. Internationally Ryanair ranks behind American, Southwest, Delta and China Southern in passenger numbers.
