Ryanair grows traffic in November despite massive staffing crisis over the late summer

The airline transported 9.3 million passengers throughout November, more than the 8.8 million in the same month in 2016

The airline attributed the jump to lower fares (Getty)

Ryanair recorded a 6 per cent increase in passenger figures last month, seemingly unscathed by a staffing crisis that rocked the budget airline during the late summer.

The group on Monday said that it had transported 9.3 million passengers throughout November, more than the 8.8 million in the same month in 2016.

As a result of that, the load factor – a common measure of capacity utilisation – increased by one percentage point to 96 per cent.

The airline attributed the jump to lower fares.

Ryanair endured a turbulent late summer and autumn. A rostering debacle led to the cancellation of around 20,000 flights, scuppering travel plans of around three-quarters of a million people.

But the lasting effects of the crisis have been limited. Already at the end of October the airline said that it would not need to change the profit forecast to cover the €70m (£61m) cost of compensating passengers and bumping up pilots’ pay.

It reported profit after tax of €1.293bn for the half-year to the end of September.

It is also still Europe’s biggest airline by passenger numbers.