Budget airlines carry fewer passengers in January
Wizz Air and Ryanair both announced a drop in passenger figures between Omicron-hit December and January.
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Two of London’s main budget airlines showed that they have far from recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic, as the number of passengers they carried dropped in January.
Even when compared to Omicron-hit December, the airlines said that they had lost 2.7 million passengers between them.
Ryanair was the worst hit in January when compared to the month before. The number of passengers that it carried dropped 26% – from 9.5 million to just seven million.
Meanwhile, Wizz Air saw its passenger figures dip 9% to 2.4 million, it revealed on Wednesday.
The data casts new light on the challenging situation faced by airlines. Around the world many planes have been grounded for months at a time due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Governments put restrictions on international travel early on in a bid to slow the spread of the virus across borders.
But investors are now hoping that the airlines can move beyond Covid. The share price of both companies has recovered and is now trading at around, or above, its pre-pandemic level.
It is a different story at rival IAG which owns British Airways Investors are clearly worried about the firm and its shares price is nearly two thirds lower than before the pandemic.
Wednesday’s figures have something to cheer for both budget airlines. Wizz Air showed that it had more than quadrupled the number of passengers it carried compared to January 2021 – but it is still lagging behind its figures from a year before that.
Ryanair showed an even larger jump, increasing its passenger numbers more than fivefold.
It flew 46,000 flights in January, and its planes were 79% full. Wizz Air’s so-called load factor was 79.6%.