Aer Lingus passengers rise 2.4% but transatlantic routes continue decline

AER Lingus has seen a 2.4% rise in the number of passengers in April, but continues to be dogged by declining transatlantic travellers.

The airline’s April traffic figures, released yesterday, show that it carried a total of 779,000 passengers. While its short-haul routes saw a 3.3% rise in the number of travellers, its four US routes and service to Dubai suffered a 3.8% dip.

Aer Lingus long-haul destinations have been under pressure for a number of months. Since the start of the year it carried 331,000 people on its long-haul network, about 7,000 fewer than last year. The decline in long-haul passengers comes just months before the former semi-state carrier prepares to launch a series of new US routes and take delivery of new jets.

Under the recently agreed “open skies” aviation agreement between Europe and the US, Aer Lingus plans to launch flights to San Francisco, Washington DC and Orlando. These will add to its existing US flights to Boston, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

The load factor — a measure of how full each flight is — fell by 4.8% to 78%.

But analysts at NCB Stockbrokers believe the company can benefit from the opening up of the US market. Analyst John Sheehan said the airline is preparing to invest €1 billion in upgrading its fell to take advantage of open skies and he forecast that this expansion will allow Aer Lingus to grow long-haul revenues from €314 million in 2006 to €445m by 2009.

“Transatlantic traffic to the US is projected to grow at an average annual rate of circa 5% until 2020 by the Federal Aviation Authority. We expect traffic growth from Ireland to outstrip this rate given fiscal, economic and cultural advantages over fellow European countries and US immigration pre-clearance at Dublin Airport.”

NCB expects Aer Lingus to add to the already announced three new US routes soon. The airline has in the past said that there are a further 12 destinations that it would like to serve directly from Ireland.

NCB added: “Looking further afield, opportunities to serve growing tourism and commercial markets in destinations such as the Far East and South Africa represent a potential opportunity for the group going forward.”