Rynair saw passenger numbers jump 10 per cent to 8.2 million last month, up from 7.4 million in February last year.

The airline said its load factor – or how many seats it fills on each flight – also rose to 95 per cent from 93 per cent.

Ryanair’s Kenny Jacobs said lower fares are leading to slightly higher than expected load factors in the fourth quarter

“Accordingly we now expect full year traffic to just about hit 120 million, up almost 13 per cent over the 106.4 million customers we carried in FY16,” he said.

Aer Lingus also reported a rise in traffic last month, with passenger numbers up 13.9 per cent versus February 2016.

The Irish airline’s revenue passenger kilometres increased 18.8 per cent to 1,388 in February, compared to 1,168 for the same month a year earlier.

The airline’s parent IAG said group traffic rose 2.9 per cent as against Febuary 2016 with group capacity up 2.2 per cent.

IAG includes Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia and Vueling.