Ryanair Attracted 27 Million Website Visits in December 2022, Dominating Peers in Europe

Ryanair gets almost triple the web traffic of its next largest competitor, Wizzair

Similarweb took a look at the top ten European (ex-UK) airlines, and found that web traffic growth has slowed for the group – but Ryanair dominates a crowded field. We list the ten largest airlines, and look at the potential for 2023.

Key takeaways 

• With 27 million website visits in December 2022, Ryanair dominates the field in Europe, representing 38% of the top ten European airlines’ web traffic.
• Wizz Air takes second place in the peer group in Europe with 13% share of traffic (9.4 million visits), followed by EasyJet (11%, 8.0 million visits).
• Web traffic to airline websites stagnated in December 2022, with traffic to the ten largest airlines in Europe down 1.5% year over year and down 3.5% from November.

Top ten European airlines dominated by Ryanair, with EasyJet and Wizz Air following

The chart below shows the ten largest European airlines (excluding the UK) by web traffic in the month of December 2022. Ryanair leads with 27 million visits, followed by Wizz Air with 9.4 million and EasyJet with 8.0 million.

Top ten Europe Airlines Revealed, three large airlines dominate

In terms of share of traffic, Ryanair leads in Europe by a wide margin, with almost 38% of the top ten European airlines. In second place, lagging by a large amount is Wizz Air, with 13%, and EasyJet in third with 11%. You can see the top ten in the pie chart below. It was surprising to us that when you take out the U.K., British Airways really fell far down the charts in terms of web traffic, with only 2% of the top ten.

December web traffic stagnated for European airlines

Taking a look at traffic over time, December traffic for the ten largest airlines in Europe declined 3.6% from November, and was down 1.5% over December 2021. So while the sector has clearly recovered from the pandemic, we are seeing a bit of a dip in demand in Europe that is likely more than just seasonal. Ryanair saw the largest month-over-month decline among peers in December, an 8% drop from November (but only a 1% drop from the prior year), while EasyJet saw the largest year-over-year decline, with a 9.7% drop (and a 4.2% decline from November).

For 2023, it looks like Europe air traffic demand is likely to be a bit weaker than in 2022, potentially driven by a weaker global economy and concerns about inflation.

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Report By: Jim Corridore, Senior Insights Manager

Methodology

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