Ryanair's Mixed Numbers & Proofreading Difficulties

Ryanair just announced their February performance numbers. The airline claims a 20 percent rise in passenger numbers in February 2008 against February 2007 numbers, and a two percent drop in load factor in February against last February's stats. Load factor, or the number of passengers as a proportion of the number of seats available to passengers, was at 75 percent in February.

Last year at this time Ryanair posted a passenger increase of 24 percent and a load factor decrease of one percent, both against February 2006 numbers. If anything, there's a slight downward drift here, though nothing approaching a dramatic trend.

I hate to venture into snarky territory, but Ryanair could really stand to proofread a bit more diligently. It's February, not Frebruary.

As soon as some other European low-cost carriers publish their February 2008 numbers, I'll write about them.