A Belarusian dog handler checks luggages off a Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS parked on Minsk International Airport's apron in Minsk, on May 23, 2021. (PHOTO / AFP)

DUBLIN - Europe's largest budget airline Ryanair suffered a loss of 355 million euros (about $370 million) in the fiscal year 2022 (FY2022), it said on Monday.

However, this is a significant improvement from a loss of slightly over one billion euros in the FY2021, the airline said in a statement.

The average occupancy rate of flights operated by Ryanair in the FY2022 was 82 percent, an increase of 11 percentage points from the previous fiscal year

Ryanair handled a total of 97.1 million passengers in the FY2022 (from April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022), up from the 27.5 million passengers it carried in the FY2021.

The average occupancy rate of flights operated by Ryanair in the FY2022 was 82 percent, an increase of 11 percentage points from the previous fiscal year.

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Total revenue for the FY2022 amounted to 4.8 billion euros, up 193 percent year-on-year, said Ryanair. Its operating costs also more than doubled to over 5 billion euros, largely due to rising oil prices.

The company hopes to grow its traffic to 165 million passengers in the FY2023, returning to pre-pandemic levels.

In the FY2020, Ryanair handled 149 million passengers, the highest number in the company's history.

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However, the company said it could not currently give an accurate estimate of future profits given the uncertain impact of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.