Ryanair is now the fifth largest airline on the planet (despite all those cancelled flights)
“Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” quipped writer Mark Twain, after rumours began to spread of the American's demise in 1897.
Today, it is not difficult to imagine Michael O’Leary, chief executive of Ryanair, muttering the same.
The low-cost carrier has suffered a torrid month or so, cancelling the flights of some 700,000 passengers before having to firefight rumoured mutinies from both its pilots and cabin crew. Some analysts began to question O’Leary’s fitness to rule.
But now, 99 per cent of the original cancellations (and 90 per cent of the second wave) have been remedied and a truce with the staff is seemingly close. What’s more, new figures from Iata, the international airlines association, have confirmed the Irish carrier is now the fifth largest on the planet, and the largest in Europe.
With help from the kind of aggressive growth the airline has been forced to suspend to get its flying schedule back on track, Ryanair carried 112 million passengers in 2016, behind only Southwest Airlines (151.8m), American (144.2m), Delta (143.3m) and China Southern (114.5m).
Top of the world | Five largest airlines (millions of passengers)
In short, Ryanair is an ever-growing aviation behemoth. In Europe, Lufthansa, which carried 110 million passengers in 2016, is its nearest rival, followed by IAG (which includes BA, Aer Lingus and Iberia) on 101 million, Air France-KLM on 93 million and easyJet on 75 million.
As Iata highlighted yet further growth in the global airline market, with a seven per cent increase in passenger numbers on 2015 to 3.8 billion, it also noted the continued rise of budget airlines.
“New Model Airlines”, as the association puts it, accounted for 28.3 per cent of all passenger journeys in 2016, up from 27.1 per cent in 2015. That Southwest, a US budget carrier, is the world’s largest underlines the importance of cheap flights to the industry.
Who flies the most?
Where in the world is flying becoming more and more popular? The Asia-Pacific region is both the largest, accounting for 1.3 billion passengers, and the fastest growing, up 11.3 per cent on 2015.
Global habits | Passenger numbers by region (millions)
However, US citizens are the most prevalent travellers, with some 810 million US passengers flying on US passports, comprising 21 per cent of all passengers, though the US population is only 4 per cent of the world's population.
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The world's busiest air route
The most popular route in the world (which we already knew, by the way) is the inimitable Jeju - Seoul Gimpo link, on which 11.6 million flew in 2016, up 4.6 per cent on 2015. That's more than people than live in Belgium flying between the two airports.
Jeju-Seoul Gimpo (11.6 million, up 4.6% over 2015)
Sapporo-Tokyo Haneda (7.7 million, down 1.2% from 2015)
Fukuoka-Tokyo Haneda (7.3 million, a decrease of 4% from 2015)
Melbourne-Tullamarine-Sydney (7.3 million, down 4.6% from 2015)
Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City (6.4 million, up 16.2% from 2015)
The world's busiest international route?
Again, all five are in the Asia-Pacific region, with the top route flying between Hong Kong and the capital of Taiwan.
Hong Kong-Taipei (5.2 million, up 2.1% from 2015)
Jakarta-Singapore (3.4 million, up 0.9% from 2015)
Bangkok Suvarnabhumi-Hong Kong (3 million, a decrease of 3.14% from 2015)
Kuala Lumpur–Singapore (2.8 million, up 3.3% from 2015)
Hong Kong-Seoul (2.8 million, down 15% from 2015)