Ryanair said today passenger numbers in December rose 9.5 per cent from last year to 2.2 million.
The carrier said in a statement its passenger load factor - a measure of how many seats it has filled on its planes - was steady on a year ago at 83 per cent.
Ryanair, which is expanding aggressively amid tough competition, has consistently increased passenger numbers as more people travel within Europe on cheaper airfares.
The airline said it carried 26.6 million passengers for the year ended December 2004 and Internet sales accounted for 97 percent of all sales for the period.
Ryanair, which competes with low-cost rival easyJet on some European short-haul routes, has warned of a bloodbath this winter as it drives down fares while full-service rivals impose fuel surcharges to offset high oil prices.