DUBLIN, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The number of passengers handled by Europe's largest budget airline Ryanair dropped to a seven-month low in January despite a staggering year-on-year growth reported by the airline on Wednesday.
In January 2022, Ryanair carried a total of seven million passengers, up nearly 439 percent when compared with the 1.3 million passengers it handled in January 2021, the airline said in a statement.
Nevertheless, the airline's January traffic figure was the lowest since last July, showed the data.
Ryanair attributed this mainly to the impact of the travel restrictions imposed across Europe following the outbreak of the new COVID-19 variant Omicron last December, noting that its December and January traffic was "badly affected by Omicron travel restrictions."
Headquartered in Ireland, Ryanair mainly operates short-haul flights in Europe and parts of North Africa.
Last year, it carried 72.4 million passengers, up almost 40 percent year-on-year. However, the figure was still some 53 percent lower than the 152.3 million passengers it handled in 2019, according to the airline. ■