Europe’s biggest budget airlines make good in the time of recession

Notwithstanding the general slump in Europe’s airline industry, some of the continent’s low-cost airlines are continuing to attract record number of passengers.

The passenger numbers of EasyJet Airline Company Limited, styled as easyJet, the European low-fare airline based at London’s Luton Airport, went up by 22.1% in September 2008 compared to the same month in 2007.

easyJet, one of Europe’s largest low-cost airlines that operate domestic and international scheduled services, flew a total of almost 4.2 million passengers in September 2008, compared to just over 3.4 million in  September 2007.

In addition, easyJet’s load factors – the measure of how full aircraft were – also were up by 1.8% to 86.9% in September 2008.

Ryanair, another European budget airline headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, and easyJet’s main rival in the low-cost carrier sector, also reported a big increase in the number of passengers carried in September 2008 – the passenger numbers of Ryanair were up by 20% in September 2008 to a total of 5.23 million.

However, load factors for Ryanair were down marginally – from 85% to 84%. For the year, till the end of September 2008, Ryanair carried a total of 56 million passengers.

Ryanair, the largest low-cost carrier in Europe, has its biggest operational base at London’s Stansted Airport. Ryanair has been characterised by rapid expansion as a result of the deregulation of the airline industry in Europe in 1997. It is also the third largest airline in Europe in terms of passenger numbers.

The website mirror.co.uk quoted Stephen McNamara, Ryanair’s head of communications, as commenting on the company’s success: “Having achieved record passenger numbers throughout the summer, we showed no sign of slowdown in September 2008, with 5.23 million passengers taking advantage of Ryanair’s guaranteed lowest fares and no fuel surcharge.”

“The credit crunch and financial crisis,” McNamara said, “may even be working in Ryanair’s favour. A lot of price-sensitive leisure passengers have switched from rival, high fares airlines, to Ryanair. However, in the light of the current crisis in banking and financial institutions, we are confident that we will soon see more bankers migrate to Ryanair also.”

Ryanair had said a month ago that it “hoped to break even for the year ending March 31, 2009, providing the price of oil remains at around $100 a barrel.”

In contrast to the achievement by low-cost carriers like easyJet and Ryanair, British Airways, the flag-carrier airline of the United Kingdom, suffered a 5.6% fall in passenger numbers in September 2008, to 2.8 million.