February Aer Lingus passenger numbers up 7.5%

Airline : Aer Lingus passenger numbers rose last month, according to its latest traffic statistics, with both long- and short…

Airline: Aer Lingus passenger numbers rose last month, according to its latest traffic statistics, with both long- and short-haul numbers showing gains. The airline carried 599,000 passengers during February, up 7.5 per cent on the same month last year.

Short-haul passengers accounted for 554,000 of the airline’s traffic, up 6.9 per cent on February 2011. Long- haul passengers totalled 45,000, up 15.4 per cent on the same period last year.

The airline’s passenger load factor rose 1 per cent to 67.3 per cent in February compared with the same month last year. Its regional passenger numbers rose 22.9 per cent to 59,000.

On Monday, Ryanair said it carried 4.47 million passengers last month, down 2 per cent on same month last year. The budget airline said its load factor remained unchanged at 76 per cent.