Aer Lingus has reported a 9.6% increase in its passenger numbers for December. Passenger numbers rose to 695,000 last month compared with 634,000 the same time in 2006.
The increase comprises a 9.3% increase in short-haul passenger numbers and an 11.6% increase in long-haul passengers.
However, the airline's load factor - or how many seats it is filling on each flight - declined by 4.6 points to 68%. Aer Lingus said this reflected an increase in its capacity on both its short-haul and long-haul routes.
It said its short-haul capacity increased by 17.1% last year, while its long-haul capacity rose by 29.9% year on year with the recent launch of new routes to Washington DC, Orlando and San Francisco.
For the year as a whole, passenger numbers were 9.3 million, up 7.8%, while load factor fell 2.2 points to 75.4.
Meanwhile, Aer Lingus has teamed up with lastminute.com to provide hotel accommodation for its passengers.
Lastminute.com has a portfolio of 80,000 hotels worldwide and offers affordable budget accommodation as well as five star deluxe hotels in all Aer Lingus destinations and beyond.
Aer Lingus said lastminute.com had won the contract due to its highly competitive product and range of accommodation on offer.
