Aer Lingus passenger traffic rises

Aer Lingus said this morning its passenger traffic rose 15 per cent last month after the carrier added new aircraft and European routes.

Short-haul flights showed 15.6 per cent passenger growth, with long-haul increasing by 10 per cent.

However, the load factor, or proportion of seats filled on each flight, dropped 8.3 percentage points when compared with the same month a year earlier, to 66.7 per cent.

Nevertheless, Aer Lingus has increased its long-haul capacity to 41.7 per cent following the addition of two new aircraft.

The load factor on long-haul routes was worst affected, falling to 60.1 per cent compared with 74.8 per cent for the same month in 2007.

Overall passenger numbers increased 15 per cent to 751,000 travellers.