Ryanair today said it carried 19 per cent more passengers last month than in December a year ago.
The airline said 3,361,169 people travelled on its flights during the month, compared with 2,833,765 passengers in December 2005.
However, its load factor - a measure of how full its planes were - fell to 81 per cent from 82 per cent the year before.
In the 12 months to December 31st, 2006, the group said it carried 40,532,095 passengers and had a load factor of 83 per cent.