Budget airline Ryanair said today it has carried a record 99.9 million passengers in the past 12 months following improvements to customer service.

The rolling annual traffic figure is 17% higher than at the same time last year, with the Dublin-based carrier’s November passenger numbers having grown by 21% to 7.71million while its load factor – a measure of how full its planes are – rose from 88% to 93%.

The airline’s chief marketing officer, Kenny Jacobs, said: “These record monthly numbers and load factors are due to our lower fares, our stronger forward bookings and the continuing success of our Always Getting Better customer experience programme, which continues to deliver stronger than expected traffic and load factors.”

Ryanair, which is the largest operator out of Stansted Airport, is set to introduce a new website, app, crew uniform and inflight menu over the next 12 months.

Earlier this week Ryanair launched legal action against Google and travel website eDreams over claims that consumers are being conned into mistakenly believing they are booking flights direct with the carrier.

Searches for Ryanair on Google can result in a paid advert for eDreams at the top of the page, which the airline described as a link to a “copycat website with identical Ryanair branding in order to deceive consumers”.

The case has been taken to the High Court in Ireland for alleged breach of consumer protection legislation and trademark infringement.