Increase in Aer Lingus traffic numbers

AER LINGUS flew 847,000 passengers in September, according to its latest monthly traffic statistics.

The figure is 9% higher than September 2006 and reflects an increase in both short-haul flights to Britain and continental Europe and an increase in transAtlantic passenger traffic.

Short-haul passenger traffic rose by 7.8% in September to 742,000. The load factor, which measures how full each flight is, rose by 0.5% to 80.5%. The increase in load came as Aer Lingus added 9.8% to its seat capacity.

The airline’s long-haul routes to the US and Dubai saw an increase of 16,000 passengers in September (18% more than in September 2006) to 105,000.

The load factor fell by 4.9% to 67.9% but the airline says this was expected as it had added two new aircraft earlier in the summer and a new service to Washington DC in August, which added 26.3% more seats to fill.

The fall in long-haul load factor has eased in each of the last two months. Aer Lingus is due to add more flights to the US in the next couple of weeks, to San Francisco and Orlando.

In the year to date Aer Lingus carried a total of 7.05 million passengers, a 7.4% increase on the same period in 2006.

The load factor in the year so far was 76.5%, a fall of 1.9% on 2006.

Seat capacity on long and short haul for the year is 11.8% higher. Shares closed up 3c at €2.38.

Neil Glynn, analyst with NCB Stockbrokers, said: “Traffic performance continues to be in line with expectations at Aer Lingus. Short haul is performing particularly well, while the load factor achieved on the two new long-haul aircraft is stabilising.”