The Irish carrier saw a surge in passenger numbers last month compared to January 2015 when it carried 5.98 million people. Load factors also improved by 5 percentage points to 88% year-on-year.

Ryanair’s traffic for the last 12 months rose by 17% to 102.9 passengers.

Chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs said the increase in traffic was due to “offering lower fares as part of our load factor active/yield passive policy”.

Arch-rival easyJet increased passengers by 6.3% to 4.3 million in January, while traffic for the last 12 months went up by 7.2% to 70.1 million. Load factors were down 0.1 points at 85%.

Meanwhile Norwegian saw a 9% rise in traffic last month to 1.76 million year-on-year with load factors rising by 1.7 points to 81.7%. The airline has increased capacity by 12% compared to January 2015.

Norwegian chief executive Bjorn Kjos said: “We are very pleased that we have attracted more passengers and achieved a higher load factor in a traditionally slower month.

“The growth is primarily due to international expansion, with continued UK growth at our Gatwick base, along with new domestic flights in Spain.”