Traffic at Aer Lingus rose 8.2 per cent to more than 1.1 million passengers in July, the airline said today.
Although it carried 11.2 per cent more short haul passengers last month than it did a year ago, at more than 1 million, long haul passengers were down 113,000 - a 12.4 per cent decrease.
Aer Lingus also said its overall load factor, which measures how full the planes are, fell for the month by 1 point to 82.3 per cent compared to a year earlier. Long haul flights were hit more severely, with load factor falling four points to 77 per cent, with capacity decreasing by 12.7 per cent.
Overall capacity at the airline was up 1.5 per cent.