RyanAir and easyJet's traffic up

Hitwise

January 2005 looks set to be a bumper month for Europe's second biggest discount airline, easyJet. The cut-price airline recently reported a rapid rise in passenger numbers for December, and Hitwise data reveals a similarly sharp rise in online traffic to the easyJet website for the first week of January. While traffic to the site dipped slightly during the holiday period from December 25 to January 1, the week ending January 8 saw a 20% increase in traffic, with the website's market share increasing from just over 10% to more than 12.2% in the Travel - Transport sector in the space of a week.

easyJet's cut-price competitor, RyanAir, also increased its traffic by 18% in the first week of January, with Hitwise weekly data revealing a leap from 5.9% to almost 7% market share of the Travel - Transport sector between January 1 and January 8.