Adverse weather conditions see Aer Lingus passenger numbers fall 25%

PASSENGER numbers at Aer Lingus plunged by just over 25% last month as travel was hit by the adverse weather conditions.

Passenger numbers nose-dived from 766,000 in December 2009 to 572,000 last month.

Short-haul passenger numbers were down 27.3% to 504,000, while long-haul passenger numbers fell by 6.8% to 68,000 from 73,000 in December 2009.

Aer Lingus said its load factor, which is a measure of the number of seats filled rose by 2.7 percentage points to stand at 74.6% last month. Its short-haul load factor rose by 3.7 percentage points to 73.2%.

Capacity on the airline’s short haul-routes fell by 31.9% due to the weather related disruptions and planned service reductions at some airports.

Its long-haul booked load factor was 76.6%, down marginally on the same month in 2009 with capacity falling by 6.6%.

In the last few weeks Aer Lingus announced some new routes from Ireland such as Shannon to Gatwick and Cork to Rennes.

“In December 2010, in common with many other carriers, Aer Lingus experienced poor weather conditions leading to flight cancellations and significant disruptions to operations. As a result passengers carried were 8% below the level of booked passengers.”

The new Shannon Aer Lingus route brings to nine the number of destinations served by the airline out of Shannon. Last month the airline started a Shannon- Paris Charles de Gaulle service and extended its services to Manchester.