Aer Lingus passenger traffic falls

Passenger traffic at Aer Lingus fell 6.3 per cent in March compared with a year earlier, new data showed today.

The airline said it carried 782,000 passengers last month, with both short and long haul passengers falling over the month. The airline had 713,000 short haul travellers, a 4.7 per cent decline on March 2009, while long haul passengers slipped 20.7 per cent to 69,000.

The airline decreased capacity by 11.3 per cent compared to the same month last year, mainly on long haul routes, which lost 29 per cent as Aer Lingus cut a number of routes. Short haul routes increased capacity by 1.2 per cent.

Aer Lingus scaled back operations at Gatwick to three aircraft, less than a year after establishing a base there, after “unacceptable losses” on routes to continental Europe. The move meant a number of routes to locations including Tenerife, Warsaw, Bucharest and Faro were dropped from the end of March.

The airline has also reduced capacity on other transatlantic routes.

The airline's overall load factor rose 0.3 points to 75.9 per cent, with short-haul routes falling 2.7 points to 75.9 per cent and long haul load factor up 4.2 points to 75.7 per cent compared with a year earlier.