Short haul traffic at Aer Lingus drags down passenger figures

CIARA O’BRIEN

Passenger figures at Aer Lingus fell by 1.2 per cent in February as the number of people flying on the airline's short haul routes fell compared to a year earlier.

The 3.8 per cent decline on the mainline route came despite a 7 per cent rise in long haul travellers to 46,000 for the month.

Passenger load factor was also lower, declining to 67.3 per cent from 68.3 per cent a month earlier.

A total of 640,000 passengers, including Aer Lingus Regional services, flew with the airline over the month. The number of people flying with Aer Lingus regional rose by more than 12 per cent to 82,000.

Meanwhile, rival airline Ryanair said its traffic rose by 7 per cent to 4.5 million customers in the same period. The company, which has made a concerted effort to improve its customer service performance in recent months, said load factor rose 1 per cent to 78 per cent.