Aer Lingus bookings hit by strike threat

Passenger numbers at Aer Lingus fell in June as the threat of industrial action at the airline hit bookings.

Pilots at the airline had threatened industrial action over new roster arrangements last month.

Aer Lingus said booked passengers fell by 1.7 per cent year on year to 925,000, with long haul passengers seeing a 4.3 per cent decline compared with 1.4 per cent for short haul travellers.

The airline's booked load factor,  a measure of how well a carrier is selling available seats, fell by 2.1 points year on year to 80 per cent. On short haul flights the load factor was down 1.1 points to 78.6 per cent, with capacity rising by 1.5 per cent.

Booked load factor on long haul flights was 83.1 per cent, 4.1 points lower than June 2010. Capacity on these routes was up 0.5 per cent.

Meanwhile, Aer Lingus Regional saw booked passengers increase by 70.7 per cent to 70,000 year on year.