Aer Lingus passenger numbers up 7%

Aer Lingus has announced a jump of 7% in passenger numbers for August, compared to the same month last year.

The airline carried 1.2025 million passengers, including those carried by Aer Lingus Regional.

Short-haul flights saw an increase of 3.3%, from 884,000 to 913,000 passengers, while transatlantic flights saw much greater growth of 22.3% - from 121,000 to 148,000.

The airline had a load factor - the percentage of available seats filled - of 87.8% across both services, up 1.2%.

In the year to date, Aer Lingus has seen an increase in passenger numbers of 4.4% - 2.2% on its main service and 24.1% on Aer Lingus Regional services.