The launch of new routes has helped EasyJet achieve a 25 per cent rise in passenger numbers, leaving the airline on course to reclaim its title as Europe's most popular low-cost carrier.

EasyJet carried 2.40 million travellers last month compared with 1.02 million a year before. The October figure would be sufficient to give EasyJet leadership in the passenger table should Ryanair's rate of passenger growth have fallen far below the 17 per cent recorded in September.

The difference between the two carriers' passenger numbers slid to 18,000 in September from more than 100,000 in August.

Ray Webster, the easyJet chief executive, credited the rise in passenger numbers to falling of half-term in the month. The airline also launched 18 routes during the month, including its first flights to Estonia.

EasyJet's load factor, a measure of the proportion of seats filled and viewed as an indicator of profitability, reached 87.0 per cent from 85.5 per cent in October last year.

EasyJet will on November 23 release results for the year to the end of September.

Shares in the carrier stood 3p higher at 174.75p in morning trade.

• Another budget airline, Flybe, today announced record summer figures, with October 2004 passenger numbers up 35 per cent year-on-year.

  Flybe, Europe's third-ranking budget airline, also claims to have matched an increase in passenger figures with yield growth, up 10 per cent so far this year on its network of 33 international routes and 36 domestic routes hubbed around Birmingham and Liverpool.

  The company's interim results are to be announced on November 18.

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