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.
