Aer Lingus sees rise in March passenger numbers

Passenger numbers at Aer Lingus rose last month on the back of an increase in long haul traffic, the airline said on Wednesday.

Total passenger traffic – which includes both Aer Lingus and its regional subsidiary – amounted to 815,000 passengers in March, up 2.3 per cent compared to the same month last year.

While long haul traffic rose 25.3 per cent to 94,000 in March 2015 as against 75,000 during the same month last year, short haul traffic fell slightly from 628,000 passengers in March 2014 to 625,000 passengers last month.

Aer Lingus mainline traffic increased 2.3 per cent as the airline carried a total of 719,000 passengers last month, down from 703,000 passengers during March 2014.

Load factor – a measure of how many seats are filled on each flight – up 4.4 percentage points to 79.1 per cent.

Short haul passenger load factor rose by 2.5 percentage points to 76.4 per cent. The airline said this improvement reflected capacity reductions related to planned network adjustments to protect margins given seasonal demand conditions.

Long haul load factor also increased during March, up 6.5 percentage points to 82.6 per cent from 76.1 per cent in March 2014.

In the year-to-date, total Aer Lingus traffic is down 0.8 per cent to 1.81 million.