French strikes don't stop Ryanair's passenger growth

Ryanair grew passenger numbers 28% to 8.5 million in March, despite three days of French air traffic control strikes during the month.

The airline also pushed load factors up by 4 percentage points to 94%.

Rolling annual traffic to March grew 18% to 106.4 million customers.

Unveiling the figures, Ryanair said it was about to launch further improvements under its ‘Always Getting Better’ programme.