Ryanair September traffic rises 4% to 20.1 million passengers

Ryanair flew 20.1 million passengers in September, up 4% from 19.4 million a year earlier, the airline said. Its load factor held at 94%.

The airline said it operated more than 111,700 flights during the month and cancelled over 1,000 of them. It blamed the cancellations on a failure of the UK's air traffic control system, strikes by Belgian air traffic controllers, and eruptions of Mount Etna.

In the 12 months to the end of September, Ryanair reported 215.1 million passengers, 5% more than the 203.9 million in the same period a year before. The load factor for those 12 months was also 94%.