Low-cost airline Ryanair carried 12.54 million passengers in December, up 9 per cent year-on-year, despite the removal of the carrier's fares by several online travel agents early in the month.
While passenger numbers increased year-on-year, its load factor for the month fell one per cent to 91 per cent, thought to be a result of OTAs' action. The airline operated more than 72,500 flights in December but cancelled more than 900 due to the Israel-Gaza conflict.
From January to December 2023 it carried 181.8 million passengers, up 13 per cent year-on-year, and achieved a load factor of 94 per cent.
Ryanair welcomed the removal of its fares by OTAs including Booking.com, Kiwi and Kayak in early December, saying it may have been the result of pressure from consumer protection agencies or "a response to the recent Irish High Court ruling, which granted Ryanair a permanent injunction against screenscraper Flightbox from unlawfully scraping Ryanair.com content for OTAs, or in response to Ryanair’s KYP (Know Your Passenger) customer initiatives such as verification."
The airline has long opposed the actions of 'screen scrapers' and OTAs that offer marked-up Ryanair fares to customers.
It added that while such OTAs only account for a "small fraction" of Ryanair's bookings, it expects the removal of its flights to reduce short-term load factors by one or two per cent in December and January and also to "soften short-term yields".
In a statement, it added: "Ryanair continues to make its fares available to honest/transparent OTAs such as Google Flights, who do not add hidden mark ups to Ryanair prices and who direct passengers to make their bookings directly on the Ryanair.com website."