Aer Lingus and Ryanair see passenger numbers rise

IRELAND’s two principal airlines have experienced growth in passenger numbers, with Aer Lingus seeing a 13% boost during December and Ryanair up 5% over the entire year.

Aer Lingus said its total booked passenger numbers in December, including its Aer Lingus Regional operations, rose by 13% to 702,000 from 621,000 the same month the previous year.

Aer Lingus’s total booked passenger numbers in December 2011 was 638,000, an increaseof 11.5% compared to December 2010. Short-haul booked passengers in December 2011 were 574,000, an increase of 13.9% on December 2010.

Long-haul booked passengers were 64,000 in December 2011, a decrease of 5.9% on the same month in 2010.

Aer Lingus’s booked load factor in December 2011 decreased by 6.2 points on December 2010 to 68.4%.

Short-haul booked load factor was 67.7%, a decrease of 5.5 points on December 2010, with capacity increasing by 22.8% on December 2010.

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

Aer Lingus Regional’s total booked passenger numbers in December 2011 were 64,000, an increase of 30.6% compared to December 2010.

Meanwhile, Ryanair announced 5% traffic growth for 2011, up to 76 million passengers from 72 million in 2010.

The airline also enjoyed new record of 8.1 million passengers in August (up 6% on August 2010). The busiest day was Friday August 12 when over 280,000 flew on over 1,600 Ryanair flights.

The busiest booking day was March 28 when over 310,000 bookings were made on Ryanair’s website.

To celebrate another record year in 2011 Ryanair yesterday released 1 million seats, from €14.99, for travel on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in late February.