Low-cost carrier Ryanair saw a 24 per cent rise in passenger numbers for April to reach 2.7 million.
Ryanair said in a statement its passenger load factor - a measure of how many seats it has filled on its planes - was 81 per cent, slightly down on the 82 per cent of last year.
Some analysts had predicted Ryanair passenger numbers would be buoyed in April by thousands travelling to Rome following the death of Pope John Paul II.
The Dublin-based airline has also had consistently higher monthly passenger numbers as it expands aggressively on short-haul European routes in the past year.
Ryanair shareholders meet next week to vote on whether to approve an order for new planes worth more than £2.1 billion from Boeing as part of plans to double passenger numbers by 2012.
Ryanair plans to expand aggressively in Europe despite falling ticket prices and high fuel costs.