Stansted: Ryanair and easyJet report strong growth during January
Ryanair and easyjet planes on the ground at Luton Airport. - Credit: PA
Leading budget airlines Ryanair and easyJet today both reported strong passenger growth for January.
Ryanair, the biggest operator at Stansted Airport, said it carried 4.6million passengers during the month, a 5.0% increase compared with the 4.3m figure for January 2013, with the load factor (the percentage of available seats sold) unchanged at 71%.
The Dublin-based carrier added that its rolling annual passenger total of 81.6m for the 12 months to the end of January represented a 3% increase on the previous year.
Ryanair also announced today that that its passeners will now be permitted to use personal electronic devices, such as smartphones, tablets, e-readers and MP3 players, for the entire during of flights.
The permission, which follows approval by the Irish aviation regulator, the IAA, come into effect immediate and is subject on to safety briefinigs being observed and the devices switched to “flight mode”.
A company spokesman said: “This is the latest customer initiative introduced by Ryanair as it continues to improve its industry leading customer service, and follows the recent roll out of allocated seats for all customers, which was successfully introduced last Saturday.”
Robin Kiely added: “Ryanair customers can now use their personal electronic devices at all stages of their flight, while they enjoy their allocated seats, our low fares and on-time arrivals.
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“The IAA is one of the first regulatory authorities in the world to approve this measure and we wish to commend them for their initiative. We are working hard to improve our service to all customers and today’s PED approval is the latest in a series of changes which we know our customers will love.”
Meanwhile, rival easJet, also a major operator out of Stansted, said it had carried 4.02m passengers last month, a rise of 3.7% on the January 2013 figure of 3.88m, with the load factor up by a full percentage point at 85.4% against 84.4%.
The airline’s rolling annual passenger total of 61.47m represented a 3.6% increase on the previous 12-month period, with the load factor rising to 89.4% from 88.9%.
