Long-haul sector accounts for fall in passengers at Aer Lingus

AER LINGUS carried 902,000 passengers in October, a reduction of 2,000 on the same month of 2008.

Short-haul traffic rose by 3.3 per cent to 821,000, boosted by its new base at Gatwick Airport. But its long-haul passenger numbers declined by 25.7 per cent to 81,000. This reflects a 30.4 per cent decline in seat capacity on routes to the United States.

Aer Lingus’s load factor – the average number of seats filled on each aircraft – during the month was 74.6 per cent, a rise of 1.3 points on October 2008. Its short-haul load factor was 77 per cent, which was flat on a year earlier. Its long-haul load factor was 70.1 per cent, up 1.3 points on 2008.

In the first 10 months of 2009, Aer Lingus said it carried 9.2 million passengers, a rise of 2.4 per cent on the same period of last year. Again, short-haul provided the growth, with its long-haul operations declining steeply. The airline carried just under 8.3 million passengers on short-haul flights in the year to the end of October, up 4.8 per cent on 2008.

It handled 922,000 passengers on long-haul flights to the US, down 15 per cent year-on-year.

Its average load factor in the first 10 months was 76.4 per cent, up from 75 per cent in 2008.

Aer Lingus also said yesterday that it would issue an interim management statement on Monday, which will give an update on trading and the outlook for the year. This is expected to reveal that the airline’s performance remains weak.

It is not clear whether the airline will provide an update on its negotiations with unions over plans to cut 676 jobs over the next two years and reduce its staff costs by €74 million. It is also seeking to implement average pay cuts of 10 per cent.

Aer Lingus’s shares closed up 5.6 per cent in Dublin yesterday at 56 cent.