Ryanair has attributed last month’s 7% passenger increase to improved customer service, easier-to-use website and other recent changes.
In February it carried 4.5 million customers, a rise of 300,000 on February 2013 figures.
Load factor increased by one percentage point, to 78% and annual traffic in the 12 months to February 2014 was up 3%, to 81.9 million.
Spokesman Robin Kiely attributed the increase to lower fares, easier-to-use website and recent customer service improvements including allocated seats for all customers and the use of personal electronic devices on all flights.
Kiely added: "Further improvements will be rolled out over the coming months as Ryanair continues to lower prices and improve our customer service."
Rival easyJet saw a 2.9% increase in February traffic, to 4.2 million. Load factor increased slightly, by 0.2 percentage points, to 90.7%.
For the rolling 12 months, easyJet reported a 3.5% increase, to 61.6 million passengers.
Last week, Ryanair said it planned to operate long-haul transatlantic flights to the US. However, a TravelMole poll suggests the flights would not be popular among the majority of people.
In response to the question: "Would any of your clients fly Ryanair all the way to the US?", 77% said "No", while 23% said "Yes".
