Ireland-based budget airline Ryanair has said its passenger numbers slumped to be down 64 per cent year-on-year in September, a hard blow following a moderate improvement in August.
Ryanair flew 5.1 million passengers in September compared with 14.1 million a year earlier.
The airline linked the dip in passenger figures to ongoing COVID-19 travel restrictions and quarantine requirements, as Europe struggles to contain new outbreaks of the virus.
Further, Ryanair said it operated about 53 per cent of its normal September schedule with a load factor of 71 per cent.
September’s figures are moderately worse off from those of August, which benefited from part of the summer travel season, although Ryanair’s passenger figures were still down 50 per cent from 2019 in August.
Ryanair has been very outspoken throughout the pandemic in its criticism of EU governments, and Ireland in particular, which has imposed rigid restrictions to control the spread of the virus.
The budget airline has publicly likened the Irish lockdown to be “like North Korea” and claimed it has had no impact on the spread of COVID-19.
The airline has also joined many industry bodies advocating for wide-spread alternatives to border closures and quarantine requirements, such as pre-flight COVID testing, in order to reinvigorate the aviation sector.
Meanwhile, despite poor passenger traffic figures, the Irish Independent newspaper has reported that Ryanair is eyeing an order of up to 200 embattled Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, potentially by the end of the year.
The ambitious plan by Ryanair Group CEO Michael O’Leary relies heavily on the rapid return of demand for air travel when the COVID-19 crisis wanes and vaccines emerge to protect the travelling public, the Independent reported.
“It’s believed the order could be sealed by the end of the year as the MAX is certified to fly again,” the newspaper added.
An order of this magnitude, if it were to occur, would take the title for the biggest commercial order placed in the entirety of the industry for 2020.
After the news report broke, Ryanair’s operating CEO Eddie Wilson played down the story slightly on Irish public radio, however did not deny the existence of the ambitious goal.
“We’ve a current order with Boeing for 210 Max aircraft, 135 of those firm orders and 75 options,” Wilson said.
“We’re working with Boeing at the moment and our priority is to get that order back into service and we expect that to be in early 2021.”
