Budget airlines Ryanair Holdings PLC and Wizz Air Holdings PLC on Friday both reported an uptick in passenger numbers last month, while Wizz Air further reduced flight capacity to improve its load factor.

Dublin-based Ryanair said it carried 13.6 million passengers in December, up 8.4% from 12.5 million in December last year. This was on a load factor of 92%, up one percentage point from 91% the year before.

Ryanair said it operated more than 77,380 flights during the course of the month.

On a rolling 12-month basis, passenger numbers were up 8.1% to 197.2 million from 181.8 million, while load factor remained stable at 94%.

Budapest-based Wizz Air said passenger numbers increased 2.0% to 5.1 million in December, from just under 5.0 million last year. Capacity was reduced 1.7% to 5.9 million seats from 6.0 million last year, which upped December’s load factor to 86.5% from 82.1%.

On a rolling 12-month basis, passenger numbers rose 3.9% to 62.7 million from 60.3 million, and capacity was up 4.0% to 69.1 million seats from 66.4 million. Its load factor was down marginally at 90.7% from 90.8%.

Wizz Air said it benefitted from a ‘positive yield environment’, as November booking momentum continued into December. It said its fourth-quarter bookings are currently running more than 2 percentage points ahead year-on-year.

The airline also said its carbon dioxide emissions were down 3.5% during the month to 482,951 metric tonnes from 500,027 metric tonnes.

Shares in Ryanair were 0.4% lower at €18.93 each in Dublin on Friday morning. Wizz Air shares were down 0.9% at 1,403.15 pence each in London.

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