Aer Lingus has, as expected, dropped its long-haul route to Dubai from its summer 2008 schedule. The service to Dubai was launched in March 2006 and was projected at that time to carry 70,000 passengers a year.

Aer Lingus declined to divulge its load factor on the flights but they are believed to have been below forecasts, particularly in the summer, when the temperatures in the Gulf state soar. The service will be grounded in March with the A330 aircraft to be used instead to bring the frequency on the airline's route to San Francisco up to a daily service.

Aer Lingus said it would consider reinstating Dubai for its winter schedule. Winter bookings on the route exceeded those in the summer schedule, which runs from April to October. Aer Lingus also said it was adding three new aircraft on short-haul routes to add new services to Europe from Dublin, Cork and Belfast. The company said yesterday it carried 828,000 passengers in October, a rise of 8.9 per cent on the same month in 2006. In the year to date, the airline has carried 7.9 million passengers, an annual increase of 7.6 per cent.

In October the percentage of seats filled on short-haul routes increased by 1.8 points to 75.6 per cent. The long-haul load factor declined to 74.9 per cent from 77.3 per cent in October 2006.

In the year to date, Aer Lingus's overall load factor fell to 76.4 per cent compared with 78.1 per cent for the same period of 2006.