Budget airlines see traffic increase in October

Budget airlines saw a small boost in traffic figures in October, with easyJet, Aer Lingus and Ryanair all recording year-on-year growth in passengers.

The three stocks were performing well on Tuesday afternoon, with easyJet, Aer Lingus and Ryanair gaining 0.3%, 1.4% and 1.3%, respectively.

MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

As easyJet is a 'no-refund' airline, passenger figures represent the number of booked seats flown regardless of whether customers turn up or not.

Meanwhile, the load factor - a key measure that airlines use to judge how full their planes are - decreased by 0.4 percentage points (pp) year-on-year to 88.4% in October.

Irish operator Aer Lingus said that total flown passenger numbers rose by 0.9% year-on-year last month to 962,000. Its mainline flown passenger load factor increased by 1.5pp to 79.2%.

As for sector peer Ryanair, passenger numbers gained 4% to 7.54m, the seventh month in succession that the airline has carried over 7.0m passengers, the company said.

Ryanair boasted that it remains the only airline across the whole of Europe to carry over 7.0m passengers in one month. However, its load factor fell by 2.0pp year-on-year to 82%.

MoneyWeek is written by a team of experienced and award-winning journalists, plus expert columnists. As well as daily digital news and features, MoneyWeek also publishes a weekly magazine, covering investing and personal finance. From share tips, pensions, gold to practical investment tips - we provide a round-up to help you make money and keep it.