Ryanair was the only major airline in the world to increase its traffic during the pandemic, new figures have shown.

The number of flights provided by the low-cost airline so far this month were higher than January this year and February 2019.

The figures, released by flight database OAG, assessed the flight frequency of 20 of the world's top airlines.

It shows that so far this month, Ryanair carried out over 53,000 flights - an increase of 15.6% since last month.

This is also a jump of 2.5% compared to February 2019.

In Association with

EasyJet was the fastest-growing carrier this month, compared to last month, increasing frequency by 43%, which the database says is largely boosted by the reopening of ski markets.

Only two other European carriers - Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines - were included in the Top 20, and both are still considerably behind 2019 levels.

Ryanair, run by Michael O'Leary, pictured, said it is seeing increasingly strong booking demand for this month and next, through to the Easter break.

The budget carrier said: "In January, we launched our largest ever summer schedule from Dublin Airport with 120 destinations and more than 900 weekly flights for our Irish customers to sunny getaways like Spain, Portugal, Italy and many more.

"Ryanair will operate 22 routes from Cork this summer, including a new route to Venice; 20 routes from Shannon, including a new route to Malta; 15 routes from Knock, including a new addition to Birmingham; and seven routes from Kerry."

However, air travel capacity does not yet appear to have picked back up following the Omicron wave. Global capacity this month is 24.2% behind the total for February 2019, pre-pandemic.

Ryanair missed its targets in December after the spread of Omicron forced governments to reimpose restrictions on international travel.

The business said it had carried 11.3million passengers in October and 10.2million in November. But just 9.5million passengers travelled with Ryanair in December, far below its 11million target.

However, the carrier still saw a strong recovery from the worst periods of the pandemic. During the three last months of 2021, it said, 31.1million passengers travelled on its planes, which is nearly four times more than a year earlier.

And it is also showing confidence going into the vital summer season. Ryanair claims it is selling 14% more tickets than it did in the last summer before Covid, in 2019.