Aer Lingus this morning reported a year-on-year rise in total passengers in February but said its load factor - the percentage of available seats filled - fell.
The total number of passengers carried in February rose 7.3 per cent to 616,000 and was up 4.8 per cent at 1.2 million in the year to date.
The number of short-haul passengers rose 8.9 per cent to 548,000, while long-haul fell 4.2 per cent to 68,000.
Total passenger load factor fell 0.1 percentage points to 71.9 per cent in February from a year earlier, and year-to-date passenger load factor declined 2 per cent points to 68.9 per cent.
