EasyJet v Ryanair: who is winning the battle for passengers?

easyJet posted a near 8pc increase in passenger traffic in July to 6.4 million, outpacing its rival Ryanair which saw its traffic rise by 4pc last month. Here we look at how the two companies are currently performing:

easyJet, which is famous for its bright orange livery, has been ramping up capacity at Gatwick Airport following the purchase of 25 take-off and landing slots from Flybe last year in a £20m deal.

The airline, which is the biggest low cost airline in Britain, said on Wednesday that its load factors also improved by 1.3 percentage points in July to 92.9pc. Load factors are crucial as they indicate how many seats on flights were occupied.

Ryanair's passenger growth in the month was more muted, at 4pc, although the Irish airline still flew 42pc more passengers than its rival. Ryanair flew 9.15m passenger in July as its new "touchy feely image" gained traction with passengers. Ryanair's load factors also took a major leap forward last month, improving by 3 percentage points to 91pc.

Ryanair, which issued two profit warnings last autumn, admitted last year that it realised it had a problem when its load factors fell behind those of easyJet. Its rival spotted much earlier that customers not only wanted low fares, but they also wanted a decent flying experience as well.

Ryanair's outspoken chief executive, Michael O'Leary, admitted in November that easyJet "wiped the floor with us" on the customer service front but the airline has since rolled out a raft of improvements, including fully allocated seating and allowing passengers to take on a second, small item of cabin baggage on board.