EasyJet and Ryanair withstand impact of terror attacks as passenger numbers rise

The UK’s biggest low-cost airlines withstood the impact of November’s terrorist attacks in Paris to post strong figures in December.

Easyjet said that passenger numbers grew by 4.6% during December, despite predicting a fall in bookings in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.

However, the Luton-based airline, which is France’s second biggest operator, did see a small fall in load factor as passengers switched routes away from France.

Meanwhile, Ryanair appeared to show little impact from the terrorism with December traffic up by a quarter, compared with last year, to 7.5 million customers, although it admitted that fares charged were lower.

Ryanair has now become the first airline to carry more than 100 million passengers in a single year, with a rolling total for 2015 of 101.4 million customers.

The Irish airline has seen passenger growth of 17% in 2015, after it adopted a new policy of being nicer to its customers.

The airline said that it had increased traffic by 50% for the month of December over the past two years.

Ryanair is returning to Belfast after an absence of five years. The airline is taking over slots from Belfast International Airport to Gatwick that were used by Aer Lingus.

Both of Belfast’s airports have been losing passengers to Dublin airport, since the Irish government scrapped air passenger duty.