Ryanair enjoys busy August 2025, announces new routes for winter 2025

European low-cost giant Ryanair has reported solid traffic numbers for August 2025, driven by upbeat air-travel demand during the 2025 summer peak season. In August 2025, Ryanair transported 21 million passengers, representing a 2% year-over-year increase.

In addition to the impressive increase over the same month in 2024, Ryanair’s August traffic also reflects a straight eight-month improvement with its monthly traffic figures, which stretches back to the start of 2025. Compared to July 2025, when the airline transported 20.7 million, the airline group (which includes Ryanair, Ryanair UK, Malta Air, Buzz, and Laude Europe), saw the figures for August also exceed those for June 2025, when the airline carried 19.9 million passengers, and May 2025, when it carried 19.6 million.

During August 2025, Ryanair operated more than 114,000 flights. This marks an improvement from 113,000 flights operated in July 2025, 109,000 flights operated in June 2025, and 108,000 flights operated in May 2025. Earlier in the year, Ryanair had warned that growth at the carrier would be hampered throughout 2025 due to ongoing delivery delays at Boeing’s 737 MAX production line in Renton near Seattle. However, an acceleration of 737 delivery schedules has somewhat alleviated the issue.

Pavel1964 / ShutterstockRyanair’s August 2025 load factor (defined as the percentage of available revenue seats filled by passengers) of 96% remained flat on a year-over-year basis.  The August load factor was higher than the load factors of 95% reported in June and May, 93% reported in April and March, 92% reported in February 2025, and 91% reported in January 2025. 

New aircraft coming

Ryanair reportedly carried 200.2 million passengers in its fiscal year ending March 2025, positioning itself as the first European airline to reach 200 million passengers in a single year. 2025 is expected to be up on this figure, although the final figure will depend on just how many new 737s are delivered before the end of the current financial year.

On August 27, 2025, AeroTime reported that the airline group had been advised by Boeing that it could expect a further 25 737 MAX 8-200 aircraft ahead of schedule. In an interview with Reuters, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said that over two dozen of the airline’s “Gamechanger” jets will be delivered by October 2025, rather than Spring 2026. Meanwhile, in July 2025, O’Leary said that the airline remained “confident” that the 29 remaining 737 MAX 8-200s from its 210 orderbook will be delivered “well ahead of summer 2026”.

Bjoern Wylezich / ShutterstockNew aircraft, new routes

With new aircraft coming on stream, the airline has decided to launch five new routes from its southern UK hubs at London Stansted (STN) and London-Luton (LTN) bases for the winter of 2025/26, as well as new routes from its Northern Irish hub at Belfast International Airport (BFS).  

From London-Luton, travellers can now fly to Wroclaw Airport in Poland (WRO), while London-Stansted (STN) gains four new destinations – Lübeck (LBC) and Münster/Osnabrück (FMO) in Germany, plus Murcia (RMU) in Spain and Trapani–Birgi Airport (TPS) in Sicily. According to the airline, “With these additions, Ryanair connects Stansted to more European cities than Heathrow, offering significantly lower fares compared to the high prices charged by Heathrow-based airlines.”

GCMap.comOn September 3, 2025, the carrier also announced an expanded winter 2025 schedule from Belfast, with 13 routes, including flights to popular winter sun destinations such as Alicante, Faro, Lanzarote, and Malaga, as well as city break destinations such as  Budapest, Gdansk, Kaunas, and Krakow.

Ryanair’s Belfast winter 2025 schedule will largely operate on the airline’s two Belfast-based 737 aircraft, which “represents a $200m investment, supporting over 1,000 local jobs, and driving year-round tourism to Northern Ireland,” said an airline statement.

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