Ryanair : traffic fell 70% to 4.4 million in July

Ryanair flew 4.4 million passengers in July, a broadly expected 70% year-on-year fall after it operated around 40% of its normal July schedule with a 72% load factor, a measure of how well an airline fills its available seats.

Europe's biggest budget airline returned to a more regular schedule following the COVID-19 lockdown on July 1 when it said it expected to fly more than 4.5 million passengers during the first month back in the sky.

The Irish airline cut its annual passenger target by a quarter last week and warned a second wave of COVID-19 infections could lower that further.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin, editing by Louise Heavens)