Aer Lingus passengers up 8 per cent

Passenger numbers at Aer Lingus showed a year on year increase of 8.2 per cent in March.

The airline carried a total of 809,000 people last month brining its total passenger numbers for the first quarter of this year to 2.08 million, up 8.2 per cent on the same period in 2011.

The March rise was driven by a 15.9 per cent increase in the number of passengers taking long haul flights, a 6.4 per cent jump in mainline passengers and a 5.4 per cent increase in short haul business.

Long haul traffic has increased by 12.1 per cent so far this year, with short haul numbers up 6.2 per cent.

Passenger load factor also increased last month (by 5 points to 75.8 per cent) with the sharpest increase again in long-haul services (up 8.2 points to 82 per cent).