Aer Lingus has reported a 25.3% slump in passenger numbers for December as the recession and bad weather continued to hit the airline.
The airline said its total passenger numbers were down 25.3% to 572,000 last month from 766,000 the same time in 2009. The number of short-haul booked passengers was down 27.3% to 504,000 while long- haul passenger numbers fell by 6.8% to 68,000 from 73,000 in December 2009.
Due to the bad weather experienced in December, Aer Lingus said the number of passengers carried was 8% below the level of booked passengers.
Aer Lingus said its load factor last month rose by 2.7 percentage points to stand at 74.6%. Its short-haul load factor rose by 3.7 percentage points to 73.2%. Capacity on the airline's short haul-routes fell by 31.9% due to the weather related disruptions and planned service reductions at London Gatwick, Dublin and Cork.
Its long-haul booked load factor was 76.6%, down marginally on the same month in 2009 with capacity falling by 6.6%.
