A few days ago CAPA (website), centre for aviation published an in-depth analysis on passenger figures for 2016. Last year Ryanair transported 117 million passengers, it is the first time that a low-cost carrier beats the legacy European airline groups.
For the first time ever in Europe, in 2016 a low cost airline carried more passengers than any other airline or airline group, as Ryanair‘s 117 million passengers pushed Lufthansa Group‘s 110 million into second place. Ryanair had beaten Lufthansa itself, but not the whole Lufthansa Group. IAG‘s first full year of including Aer Lingus helped it to take third place from Air France-KLM. Europe’s number two LCC, easyJet, was ranked fifth.
The in-dept analysis can be found here: https://centreforaviation.com/analysis/ryanair-is-first-lcc-to-carry-more-annual-pax-than-any-other-european-airline-group-in-2016-rankings-322992
