THE NUMBER OF people flying with Aer Lingus  increased by 2.1 per cent in July compared to July 2011, the airline has reported.

However when the figures exclude the number of passengers who flew on Aer Lingus regional operations, traffic actually decreased by 0.7 per cent compared to the same month last year.

Aer Lingus operates a franchise agreement with regional airline Aer Arann to fly a number of routes under the Aer Lingus brand.

Just over one million passengers – 1,004,000 people – flew with Aer Lingus’s mainline.

Short haul passengers made up the vast majority of the traffic with 905,000 passengers, a decrease of 1 per cent on July 2011. There were 99,000 long haul passengers, an increase of 2 per cent on the same month last year.

Aer Lingus Regional flew 105,000 passengers, an increase of 40 per cent.

Aer Lingus mainline’s flown passenger load factor in July 2012 increased to 86.6 per cent, 2 points higher than July 2011. Short haul flown load factor was 85.1 per cent, an increase of 2.4 points while long haul flown load factor was 89.9 per cent, an increase of 1.5 points on July 2011, with capacity remaining in line with the previous year.

How to: survive a long-haul flight >

What happens when an aeroplane hits a bird? This >

Making a difference

A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

For the price of one cup of coffee each week you can make sure we can keep reliable, meaningful news open to everyone regardless of their ability to pay.

Support us Learn More