4th Dec 2018 09:46
LONDON (Alliance News) - Budget airlines Ryanair Holdings PLC and Wizz Air Holdings PLC on Tuesday reported a rise in passenger traffic in November, compared to a year before, while Ryanair said it signed a labour agreement in Germany.
Ryanair said group traffic rose by 11% to 10.4 million from 9.3 million reported in October last year. The result includes 300,000 passengers carried by Laudamotion.
In July, Ryanair acquired the remaining 75% interest in Austrian airline Laudamotion GmbH.
Excluding Laudamotion, Ryanair's traffic grew 8.6% to 10.1 million customers in November.
The result was helped by lower fares and the successful launch of its Winter schedules, Ryanair said.
Ryanair's load factor remained unchanged year-on-year at 96%.
"We operated over 56,000 scheduled flights in November with over 88% of flights arriving on time, as Ryanair continues to deliver the lowest fares, with the best punctuality of any major EU airline," said Ryanair Chief Marketing Officer Kenny Jacobs.
In addition, Ryanair said it signed an agreement with the German pilot union VC, which will deliver basic pay increases and apply German labour law for all Ryanair's German-based pilots.
The four-year deal covers pay, pension and pilot allowances and includes seniority, annual leave and base transfer systems benefits.
Separately, rival Wizz Air said it continued to grow its network, enhance its operations and improve its customer offering.
As a result, the airline increased capacity, measured in available seat kilometres, by 7.7% to 2.6 million from 2.4 million a year prior. Load factor advanced by 2.9 percentage points to 91.2% from 88.3%.
Wizz Air carried a total number of 2.4 million passengers in November, which was up 11% year-on-year from 2.2 million. The group's traffic, measured in revenue passenger kilometres, rose by 14% to 3.9 million from 3.5 million reported in November last year.
For the 12 months to November-end, passenger numbers improved by 20% to 33.4 million, with capacity increasing by 19% to 36.2 million. Load factor was 0.9 percentage point higher at 92.3%.
Looking ahead, Wizz Air said it is planning a fleet expansion with the delivery of an additional new Airbus A321, which will take its fleet to 105 aircraft.
Ryanair shares were up 0.3% at EUR11.68 each on Monday, while Wizz Air shares were 2.8% lower at 2,902.00 pence each.
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