Ryanair Holdings RYAAY, a European carrier, reported solid traffic numbers for April 2026, driven by upbeat air-travel demand.
The number of passengers transported on Ryanair flights was 19.3 million in April 2026, reflecting a 5% year-over-year increase. Apart from a year-over-year surge, RYAAY’s traffic in April was much more than the March reading of 15.8 million, the February reading of 13.3 million and the January reading of 12.7 million, highlighting continued momentum from the beginning of the year.
Ryanair’s load factor (percentage of seats filled by passengers) remained flat year over year as well as sequentially at 93% in April 2026, reflecting stable and consistent demand for the carrier’s services. However, it improved from the load factor of 92% reported in February 2026 and 91% reported in January 2026.
RYAAY operated more than 1,08,000 flights in April 2026. This marks an improvement from 88,000 flights operated in March 2026, 75,000 flights operated in February 2026 and 73,000 flights operated in January2026, reflecting expanded capacity to meet strong passenger demand.
We would like to remind investors that Ryanair carried 200.2 million passengers (traffic up 9% year over year) in its fiscal year ending March 2025, positioning itself as the first European airline to reach 200 million passengers in a single year. As a result, RYAAY is now the world’s leading low-fare airline in terms of passenger traffic, with low fares and reduced costs acting as the main catalyst. During the first nine months of fiscal 2026, RYAAY’s traffic grew 4% year over year to 166.5 million passengers.
Given the aforesaid encouraging backdrops, Ryanair has unveiled its raised traffic outlook for fiscal 2026 (concurrent with its third-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings release on Jan. 26, 2026). Ryanair now expects its fiscal 2026 traffic to grow 4% to 208 million passengers (prior view: 207 million), owing to earlier than expected Boeing BA deliveries and solid demand during the first nine months of fiscal 2026.
RYAAY’s Zacks Rank & Price Performance
RYAAY currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
Shares of RYAAY have plunged 19% so far this year compared with the 13% decline of the Zacks Airline industry.
RYAAY Stock's YTD Price Comparison
A Stock to Consider
Investors interested in the Transportation sector may also consider ZTO Express (ZTO), which presently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
ZTO has an expected earnings growth rate of 15.15% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ZTO Express’ full-year earnings has been revised upward by 6.1% in the past 60 days. Shares of ZTO Express have gained 32.2% in the past six months.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).