Ryanair’s charm offensive pays off as traffic soars 20 per cent in December
It looks like Ryanair's new PR strategy – stop trying to extract money at any available opportunity, stop actually swearing at customers – has worked a treat. The airline's traffic grew to just over six million passengers in December, a 20 per cent increase from the same period last year.
According to figures released this morning, load factor (the percentage of seats taken) also rose, from 81 per cent in December 2013 to 88 per cent last month.
That means Ryanair carried 86.4m passengers in 2014, six per cent more than the year before – although it remains a long way off from its target of 150m passengers by the end of 2024.
It's come a long way from this time last year, when it was still reeling, having issued two profit warnings in 2013.
This morning the Kenny Jacobs, the airline's chief marketing officer, said its figures were down to "our lower fares, our stronger forward booking strategy and the continuing success of our 'Always Getting Better' customer programme".
With our new routes, increased frequencies, improving customer experience and [new business class] Business Plus service, Ryanair continues to deliver so much more than the lowest fares in every market we operate in.
Er, quite.