DUBLIN, Ireland: Ryanair, the Dublin-based airline, said it flew a record number of passengers in July, even though strikes in France caused many flight problems.

The airline said 20.7 million people traveled on Ryanair flights last month, three percent more than the 20.2 million passengers who flew with them in July last year.

The load factor, which shows how full the planes were, remained high at 96 percent, meaning most seats on Ryanair flights were filled.

In July, Ryanair operated more than 113,000 flights. However, it had to cancel 680 flights, mainly due to strikes by French air traffic control (ATC) workers.

The French ATC staff went on strike on July 3 and 4, protesting their working conditions. These strikes affected flights to and from airports in France, as they also caused delays and cancellations for flights that needed to fly over French airspace, including many to and from UK airports.

The head of another airline, easyJet, said the strikes were very disruptive. Because of the walkouts, easyJet had to cancel 660 flights, which cost the company around 15 million pounds (17.2 million euros).

EasyJet is hit especially hard by French ATC strikes because around 70 percent of its flights either take off, land in, or fly over France.

According to Eurocontrol, the organization that oversees European air traffic, the strikes may have affected over one million passengers across the continent.

Another setback for passengers was a radar problem in the UK on July 30, which caused more than 100 flights to be cancelled. This issue was linked to NATS, the UK's air traffic control provider.