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Ryanair's April traffic shrinks to almost zero

Air
James Chapple
5 May 2020

Ryanair’s April passenger travel shrunk to just 40,000 carryings, offering the starkest illustration yet of the impact of the ongoing coronavirus crisis on aviation.

(Credit: iStock)

The budget carrier’s April traffic figures, group wide, fell 99.6% year-on-year from 13.5 million to 0.04 million owing to EU government flight bans and restrictions.


Subsidiary Lauda operated no flights during April, while Ryanair’s 600 scheduled flights included a number of rescue and medical flights operated on behalf of EU governments.

Fellow budget outfit Wizz Air fared little better, with passenger numbers down 97.6% on April 2019 from 3.3 million to just 78,000.


Wizz has operated 71 medical cargo flights and 28 rescue flights since the outbreak of Covid-19 in Europe, the carrier revealed in a traffic update on Tuesday (5 May).