Ryanair’s passenger numbers surged in June, with the easing of travel restrictions and successful rollout of the Covid-19 vaccination programme prompting a flood of holidaymakers to seek out summer sunshine in Italy, Spain and Portugal. The no-frills airline, which in June reported the biggest annual loss in its 35-year history, carried 5.3 million passengers on 38,000 flights last month. In June 2020, Ryanair carried only 400,000 passengers. There has been a steady increase in passengers for Europe’s biggest airline in recent months – in April there were 1 million travellers and 1.8 million in May – as the easing of travel restrictions across parts of the continent fuels a gradual recovery in the hard-hit aviation industry. Ryanair said the most popular destinations booked by holidaymakers in June were Italy, Spain and Portugal. The green shoots of recovery are also evident in traffic figures issued by Ryanair’s rival Wizz Air, which carried 1.55 million passengers last month. This is more than triple the 502,000 passengers who flew in the same month last year. Last month, Ryanair and Manchester Airports Group, the UK’s largest airport group, which also operates Stansted and East Midlands airports, launched a legal challenge calling for transparency in the government’s handling of its contentious traffic light travel system for grading countries safe to visit. Ryanair and MAG argue that ministers have not been clear about how the government has made decisions regarding the categorisation of countries as red, amber or green, which is undermining consumer confidence to book summer holidays. Earlier this year the UK’s advertising watchdog banned Ryanair’s controversial “jab and go” holiday TV campaign, with the Advertising Standards Authority saying it encouraged the public to act irresponsibly once they had received a coronavirus vaccination. Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said the passenger number reports from Ryanair and Wizz Air boosted share prices in the sector on Friday. “Airline stocks did their best to fly higher following encouraging numbers from the sector. Wizz Air managed to fill nearly two-thirds of its seats on aircraft in service during June, while Ryanair flew nearly three times as many people that month versus May,” Mould said. “Under the circumstances, these are positive numbers. However, the airline business model is built on filling planes near or at capacity and then scooping up extra fees on top for everything from early boarding to storing bags. “The sector needs a continuous flow of people through airports and ongoing Covid restrictions imposed by various governments around the world mean the industry is still some way off from operating smoothly.”