Ryanair passenger numbers down 97 per cent as ‘air bridges’ wait goes on
Ryanair flew just 400,000 people last month, the low-cost airline revealed today, as the coronavirus continued to cripple global aviation.
The figure represents a 97 per cent drop on the same month in 2019, when the budget carrier flew 14.2m people.
However, compared to April and May, in which the airline flew a combined 110,000 people, the numbers show that demand for aviation is slowly beginning to return as lockdowns ease.
Of the 79,600 flights that had been budgeted for June, Ryanair flew only 2,800, it added.
Due to the implosion of the market over the last three months, the airline said that it had flown only 107.2m this year, down 27 per cent on 2019.
The figures come after yesterday the airline began to ramp up services, with the aim of flying 4.5m passengers and 1000 flights a day in July.
Fellow budget carrier Wizz Air fared little better, carrying 502,253 passengers in June, a 86.3 per cent fall on 2019.
For the year to date it has flown 30.4m passengers, compared to the 36.3m it had carried by the same point last year.
Wizz was one of the first airlines to get back to operations despite coronavirus restrictions still applying, and has launched 64 new routes in June.
Both airlines are eagerly awaiting news as to whether the government will introduce air bridges to other low-risk countries to enable people to go on holiday again.
An announcement was expected earlier this week, but is yet to be forthcoming.
Overnight the Telegraph reported that instead of implementing air bridge measures the government would simply lift the blanket quarantine measures for up to 75 countries.