Ryanair flew a record number of passengers for the fourth month in a row during August as it continued to consolidate its position as Europe's largest airline by passenger numbers.

The Irish low-cost carrier - which unlike many airlines made a point of keeping its pilots and crew up-to-date with their flying hours during the pandemic - flew 16.9 million passengers in August compared to a pre-Covid peak of 14.9 million in August 2019.

Ryanair last week flew an average of over 3,000 flights a day, almost double the 1,600 flights of its next largest rival easyJet, according to European air traffic control agency Eurocontrol.

The average proportion of empty seats per flight was 4 per cent, compared to 3% in August 2019.

Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden poised to stand down

The Herald:

Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden is preparing to stand down next year.

The oil and gas giant, which has been making record profits this year amid the surge in energy prices that has followed Russia’s assault on Ukraine, has identified four internal candidates as potential successors.

Scotland faces “industrial energy crisis” as firms’ power bills soar

The Herald:

Soaring energy bills are a “potentially existential threat” to Scotland’s engineering and manufacturing firms, with some already facing insolvency, a national trade body is warning.

In a scathing attack on the UK government and its “lack of direction,” industry association Scottish Engineering said a “full-blown industrial energy crisis” had already arrived, with some companies facing nine-fold increases in their energy costs.

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