Aer Lingus said this morning that passenger traffic rose 17 per cent last month after it added planes and routes to the US and Europe.
The load factor, or proportion of seats filled, fell to 73.4 per cent from 77.1 per cent a year earlier, the company said.
The number of passengers increased 8.3 per cent to 727,000 people. Aer Lingus increased its fleet this year allowing it to add new routes to Europe and the US.
Aer Lingus is expanding trans-Atlantic service following the "open skies'' treaty between the US and EU earlier this year.
Aer Lingus plans to end its Dublin-Dubai service in mid- 2008 and redeploy the aircraft to San Francisco which is a route the company said is performing "particularly well." Long-haul traffic rose 23 per cent last month from a year earlier. Short-haul traffic increased 12 per cent.
Chief executive officer Dermot Mannion said on December 3rd that the airline plans to accelerate purchases of short-haul planes as it builds a network of European bases.
Seat capacity on long-haul routes rose 33 per cent in November from a year earlier, while seating on routes to Europe and North Africa increased 15 per cent.