Ryanair Holdings RYAAY reported solid traffic numbers for December 2023, driven by upbeat air-travel demand. The number of passengers ferried on RYAAY flights in December was 12.54 million, implying that 9% more passengers flew than a year ago. Apart from year-over-year growth, RYAAY’s traffic has also shown sequential improvement. The December figure compares favorably with the November 2023 figure of 11.7 million.
The load factor (percentage of seats filled by passengers) was high at 91% in December 2023.
RYAAY operated more than 72,500 flights in December 2023, which is higher than 66,400 flights flown in November 2023. However, more than 900 flights (less than 960 canceled flights in November 2023) got canceled due to the Israel/Gaza conflict.
Owing to buoyant air travel demand, shares of Ryanair have gained 57.2% over the past year, which compares favorably with 9.3% growth of the Zacks Airline industry.
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Ryanair continues to expect its traffic for fiscal 2024 to be 183.5 million.
Currently, Ryanair sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Other Stocks to Consider
Some other top-ranked stocks from the Zacks Transportation sector are Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation, operating as Wabtec Corporation WAB and SkyWest, Inc. SKYW. Wabtec carries a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy) and SkyWest sports a Zacks Rank of 1.
Wabtec has an expected earnings growth rate of 22.43% for the current year. WAB delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 7.11%, on average.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for WAB’s current-year earnings has improved 4.9% over the past 90 days. Shares of WAB have gained 27.2% year to date.
SkyWest's fleet-modernization efforts are commendable. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for SKYW’s current-year earnings has improved 38.9% over the past 90 days. Shares of SKYW have surged 217.7% year to date.
SKYW delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 32.57%, on average.
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