Aer Lingus’s Belfast debut fails to add up for Ryanair

A WAR of words broke out yesterday between Aer Lingus and Ryanair over how many passengers were onboard the former’s inaugural flight between Belfast and London.

In what Aer Lingus is describing as a stunt, Ryanair had staff members checked onto the flight so that they could hand out free Ryanair flight vouchers to Aer Lingus passengers waiting to board the 7.40am service.

Ryanair claimed only 39 passengers availed of the service, what it described as a “disastrous” load factor of less than 25%.