Passenger numbers up at Aer Lingus

PASSENGER NUMBERS at Aer Lingus were up 13 per cent last month, compared to December 2010, according to traffic statistics published yesterday.

However, the sharp increase reflects a particularly poor December 2010, when weather conditions led to customers holding multiple bookings, thus affecting the passenger numbers.

Aer Lingus described the 13 per cent year-on-year increase as “a continuation of the positive trend in Aer Lingus’ recent results”.

The airline’s booked load factor – the percentage of seats filled on a flight – decreased by 6.2 points to 68.4 per cent. Short-haul booked load factor was 67.7 per cent, down 5.5 points on December 2010, although capacity was 22.8 per cent higher than December 2010.

Long-haul booked load factor was 69.5 per cent, a decrease of 7.1 points on December 2010, with capacity up by 5.6 per cent.

Last week, Ryanair announced that its traffic fell by 5 per cent from five million passengers in December 2010 to 4.8 million passengers in December 2011. The company’s load factor was down a point to 79 per cent.

Commenting on the update, NCB stockbrokers said the main issues for Aer Lingus remain the pension deficit and the sale of the Government’s stake.