(Alliance News) - Ryanair Holdings PLC and Wizz Air Holdings PLC on Thursday released flight figures for the month of April, with both reporting a slight drop in load factor for the month.

Dublin-based Ryanair said air traffic by guest numbers was 17.3 million in April, up 8.1% from 13.0 million in April last year.

Load factor, being the percentage of available seating filled by passengers, dropped to 92% in April from 94% a year prior.

On a rolling 12-month basis, guests totalled 185.0 million in April, up 8.6% from 170.3 million, while load factor was down to 93% from 94%.

Ryanair operated over 98,400 flights during the month, but said that 700 flights were cancelled as a result of the Gaza conflict.

A further 340 flights were cancelled due to the French air traffic controller strike on April 25.

Budapest-based Wizz Air carried a total of 4.9 million passengers in April, down a few thousand from the year before.

On a rolling basis, the figure reached 68.8 million, up 16% from 59.1 million.

Load factor was down to 90% from 91% for the month, but up to 90% from 88% on a rolling basis.

Wizz Air said that load factor came in slightly below the previous year's figure due to the earlier Easter weekend, which caused the seasonal rise in outbound travel to fall in the previous month.

The airline said it continued to improve its network and customer offerings in April, converting its entire London Luton Airport fleet to the Airbus A321neo aircraft a year earlier than anticipated, and reporting the lowest CO2 emissions per passenger per kilometre among competitor airlines at 52.1 grams per passenger/km.

Shares in Wizz Air were up 0.7% at 2,216.00 pence each in London on Thursday morning. Ryanair was down 0.5% at EUR20.18 in Frankfurt.

By Hugh Cameron, Alliance News reporter

Comments and questions to newsroom@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.