EasyJet overcame more than 400 flight cancellations last month to record a 9.9% jump in passenger carryings to 7.5 million.
The budget airline was forced to cancel 434 flights in October against 164 in the same month last year.
The main contributors were a strike by French air traffic controllers on October 10 leading to about 200 cancellations and adverse weather conditions affecting a further 100 flights.
The year-on-year rise in carryings from 6.8 million in October 2016 came with the load factor improving by 2.3 percentage points to 92.5%.
Last month’s performance gave easyJet a rolling annual total of almost 81 million passengers, a rise of 10% year-on-year.
European rival Norwegian flew 3.1 million passengers in October, an increase of 14% on the same month last year.
The strongest growth was on long-haul routes, which have increased the number of passengers by 56%.
The load factor in October was 87.4%.
Chief executive, Bjørn Kjos, said: “We’re very pleased to see that more passengers are choosing Norwegian for their travels.
“The growth is highest on our intercontinental routes and the overall demand is satisfactory and stable.
“The competition is still strong, so global expansion is important to position ourselves in the market.”
Norwegian operated 99.4% of the scheduled flights in October, of which 78.3% departed on time.