Aer Lingus has reported an increase in passenger numbers in May compared with the same month last year, though the figures were distorted by last year's disruption to flights caused by volcanic ash.
The airline carried 911,000 passengers last month, up 4% on May 2010. Short-haul numbers rose 4.4%, while long-haul figures were flat.
But the load factor, or percentage of seats filled, dropped by 4.7 points to 74.6%. Again, the comparison with last year was affected by ash, as the airline said some customers last year re-booked disrupted flights multiple times.
The short-haul load factor was down 4.9 points to 75.1%, while the long-haul figure fell 4.3 points to 73.6%.
For the first five months of 2011, total passengers numbers are down 2.7% on the same period last year to 3.58 million, while the load factor has fallen by 3.5 points to 70.4%.
