5th Sep 2013 07:16
LONDON (Alliance News) - EasyJet PLC Thursday said it flew more passengers and filled more seats in August, while Irish rival Aer Lingus said a fall in short-haul passengers as customers stayed at home to enjoy good weather had been offset by a higher number of long-haul passengers.
EasyJet said it flew 6.1 million passengers in August compared with 5.9 million a year earlier and its load factor, a measure of how full its planes are, rose to 92.8% from 91.7%.
It has flown 60.5 million passengers over the past 12 months, compared with 58.1 million in the previous 12 months. Load factor in the 12 months to end-August was 89.2%, up from 88.8% in the previous 12 months.
Aer Lingus, meanwhile, said it flew 1.1 million passengers in August including its regional operations, a 0.9% increase. However, the number of short-haul passengers fell 0.8% to just over a million after it warned in July that good weather in Ireland had hit bookings. That was offset a 17.5% increase in long-haul passengers to 121,000.
The decline in short-haul passenger numbers meant that overall load factor fell 0.7 percentage points to 86.6%.
Aer Lingus' traffic measured in revenue passenger kilometers fell 4.8% on its short-haul routes excluding the regional operations, but a 17.8% increase on long-haul routes meanth the figure was up 2.9% overall.
Airline stocks were hit hard Wednesday after Ryanair Holdings PLC, Europe's largest low-cost carrier, issued a profit warning, saying it was seeing pressure on fares and yields in countries including the UK, Spain and Scandinavia.
However, easyJet shares were bouncing back Thursday after the traffic numbers, with the stock up 2.3% at 1,243 pence, one of the biggest gains on the FTSE 100.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @SteveMcGrath1
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