Ryanair has reported a 28% increase in its passenger numbers for the month of March.

The low fares airline saw its passengers rise to 8.5 million last month, a big improvement on the March 2015 figure of 6.6 million.

The company also noted that its load factor (how many seats are filled in each flight) was up to 94% from 90% in March 2015.

The boost came despite the three days of French ATC strikes which caused over 500 flights to be cancelled in March, with Ryanair's Chief Marketing Officer Kenny Jacobs calling the strikes "unjustified".

Jacobs also said:

"These record monthly numbers were delivered due to our lower fares, stronger forward bookings and the continuing success of our Always Getting Better (AGB) programme.

"Our 106 million customers can look forward to further improvements in 2016 as we will shortly launch Year 3 of AGB".