Ryanair flew a record number of passengers for the third month in a row in July, the low-cost carrier said on Wednesday, carrying 18.7 million passengers in what is generally one of its most profitable months of the year.
That was up 11% on a year earlier, when a post-pandemic travel rebound was taking shape and beat the previous monthly record of 17.4 million passengers set in June. Flights were on average 96% full in June, the same as a year earlier.
Strikes
The Irish airline, Europe's largest by passengers carried, expects traffic in its financial year to March 2024 to grow by 9%, to around 183.5 million passengers
It lowered that forecast last month from 185 million due to delays in Boeing plane deliveries and air traffic control strikes which Ryanair said forced it to cancel over 800 flights last month.
Housing Shortage
The Irish airline's chief financial officer said in July that Ryanair is considering buying apartments in Dublin to help staff struggling to find accommodation due to a severe shortage of housing,
Ireland is struggling to fix a years-long supply and demand mismatch in housing that the government has said is stopping some large companies from expanding and could curtail a post-pandemic economic boom.
Student Accommodation
The most recent data from Daft.ie, Ireland's main property listings site, showed there were just 959 homes available to rent across the whole of Ireland for a population of 5.1 million people.
Ryanair recently rented student accommodation at nearby Dublin City University for some staff that transferred to Dublin airport, finance chief Neil Sorohan told Reuters.
Article by Reuters, additional reporting by Hospitality Ireland.
