Ryanair carried 4.9m passengers last month, up 12% year-on-year, which took its total for 2009 to 65.3m, 13% more than in 2008.
December load factor improved by two percentage points to 81%, and for the full year averaged 82%.
The airline also released an investor update, stating that over 50% of its fuel requirements for the financial year ending March 2011 are hedged at approximately $720 per tonne.
It now expects annual capital expenditure to decline from €1.2bn currently to €100m in the year ending March 2013, following the termination of talks with Boeing over a 200-strong aircraft order.
In addition, Ryanair said there was ‘no truth or basis’ to recent Irish media speculation that it was preparing a third bid for Aer Lingus.
In the absence of any decision by the Irish government to sell its 25% stake in Aer Lingus, a third bid by Ryanair remains ‘highly unlikely’.
Finally, the airline expects its current cash reserves of €2.5bn to ‘grow substantially’ by March 2013 and plans to distribute surplus cash to shareholders from that date.
Elsewhere, easyJet saw December 2009 passenger numbers rise by 9.3% year-on-year to 3.4m, which took its annual total to 46.08m, 3.4% ahead of 2008.
December load factor was up 3.1pp at 85.4%, while full year loads averaged 86% (+1.4pp).
BA reported a 4.4% decline in December passengers to 2.4m.
The airline does not release calendar year totals, but said that in the financial year to date from April to December 2009, it carried 25.25m passengers, down 2.9%.
December traffic in revenue passenger kilometres fell by 4% year-on-year, on capacity in available seat kilometres down 4.2%, which helped lift load factor by 0.1pp to 76.8%.
The traffic decline comprised a 0.7% fall in premium and a 4.6% fall in non-premium.
In better news for BA, the Unite union has agreed to further talks aimed at settling the dispute over cabin crew terms and conditions.
Representatives of both sides will meet the TUC over the next few days to start the process of finding a resolution to the dispute, which led to a decision by cabin crew to take strike action, subsequently prohibited by the High Court, last month.
See also:
easyJet adds four more Stansted routes (05/01/2010)
BA wins strike reprieve...for now (18/12/2009)
Ryanair scraps 737 order; returns cash to shareholders (18/12/2009)
Ryanair disappointed by Dublin decision (23/01/2009)