Ryanair and Wizz Air traffic picks up but focus on future plans By Investing.com

By Samuel Indyk

Investing.com – Budget airlines Ryanair (LON:RYA) and Wizz Air (LON:WIZZ) both reported an increase in traffic in June but focus is likely to turn to a key meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on how the EU and UK will approach the summer holiday season.

Ryanair carried 5.3 million passengers in June, the most since the airline carried 7.0 million in August last year and the second highest number of monthly passengers since the pandemic grounded flights in April 2020. However, the figure remains well below the same month in 2020 when Ryanair carried 14.2 million passengers.

Wizz Air announced it carried 1.6 million passengers in June, up from 500,000 in June last year. The number of passengers carried was the third highest month since the pandemic began, only lower than July and August last year when the airline carried 1.8 million and 2.4 million passengers, respectively.

The figure also remains lower than the pre-pandemic June 2019 figures when Wizz Air carried 3.6 million passengers.

Travel plans

Although there are signs that international travel is picking up, European airlines will be hoping for a further easing of international travel restrictions in the coming months, particularly between the EU and the UK.

Merkel and Johnson are set to meet on Friday as part of Merkel’s farewell tour. The German Chancellor has been notably vocal against allowing UK travellers into the EU and has called on a common position from the bloc. However, reservations from Spain, amongst others, put paid to the plans and it appears Merkel may be more open to allowing UK travellers to avoid quarantine restrictions if they have been fully vaccinated.

The Times recently reported that Germany is set to relax restrictions on double-jabbed British travellers entering the nation. Currently, any UK passenger, whether fully vaccinated or not, will have to quarantine for two weeks upon arrival in Germany.

Other countries, including France and Italy, also have quarantine rules on UK passengers, while travellers returning from most of Europe to the UK must also quarantine when they arrive on British shores.

However, optimism on an easing of restrictions in time for the school holidays has supported travel stocks in recent days with British Airways parent IAG (LON:ICAG) and EasyJet (LON:EZJ) posting gains.