Aer Lingus Regional up 35% in April

Aer Lingus Regional has seen a 35% jump in the number of passengers in April compared to the same month last year.

The airline that is operated by Stobart Air (formerly Aer Arann), flew an additional 29,130 extra passengers, bringing the number flown to 112,435 passengers last month.

Aer Lingus Regional recorded particularly strong growth on its Dublin and Kerry routes.

The Dublin to London-Southend route alone saw a 21% increase in passenger numbers.

Commercial director at Stobart Air, Simon Fagan, said that Aer Lingus’s new transatlantic routes were attracting customers from British regional airports.

“There has been a 52% increase in passengers originating from the UK that are connecting to transatlantic flights at Dublin and Shannon, particularly from Bristol and Glasgow.

“This has been helped by Aer Lingus’s new routes to San Francisco and Toronto coming into operation,” he said.

Aer Lingus is looking to leverage Dublin Airport’s US pre-clearance facilities to lure British passengers flying transatlantic.

Outside of Dublin, Aer Lingus Regional recorded a 13% increase in passenger numbers in Cork, as a new route to Newcastle opened, while in Shannon there was a 39% increase in April compared to the same month last year.

“We are very pleased that our passenger numbers in April which also sees the airline’s tenth consecutive month of growth,” said Mr Fagan.