Aer Lingus passenger traffic falls in September

The number of passengers flying with Aer Lingus fell by almost 3 per cent in September, as the airline's short haul flights saw a fall-off in popularity.

Although traffic on Aer Lingus’s main long haul flights surged by more than 11 per cent and its regional service rose by 14 per cent compared to the same month in 2012, passenger figures for short haul flights on the mainline service were down by more than 6 per cent.

Overall, Aer Lingus flew 881,000 passengers on shorthaul mainline and Aer Lingus Regional services, a decline of 4.4 per cent compared with September 2012.

To date, almost 7.5 million passengers have flown with Aer Lingus’s mainline services, with 836,000 travelling with Aer Lingus Regional. Those figures are 0.5 per cent and 11.2 per cent higher respectively than the same period in 2012.

Rival airline Ryanair earlier this week reported it had flown 8.1 million passengers in September, with more than 80 million flying with the no-frills airline so far this year.