Aer Lingus says its passenger numbers fell by almost 10% in May compared with the same month last year, hit by more disruption from Icelandic volcanic ash.
The airline said it did not operate all of its scheduled flights on 11 days in May.
It carried 876,000 passengers during the month, a fall of 9.9% from a year earlier. Short-haul passengers were down 9.6%, while there was a drop of 12.2% on longer routes.
But cuts in routes and flights meant that Aer Lingus increased its load factors, or the percentage of seats filled on its flights.
The overall load factor in May was 79.3%, up 5.6 points from May last year. The short-haul load factor rose 1.9 points yo 80%, while the long-haul figure jumped 11.7 points to 77.9%. Aer Lingus has slashed capacity on longer routes by 28% over the past year.
