Aer Lingus passenger numbers up 5.3% in September 2014

Aer Lingus Group plc has announced its traffic statistics for September 2014.

· The total number of passengers carried during the month, including Aer Lingus Regional, was 1.041 million, up 5.3% compared to September 2013.
· Long haul traffic increased by 27.8% to 138,000 passengers, up from 108,000 in the same month last year.
· Short haul traffic also increased during September with 784,000 short haul passengers representing an increase of 1.2% from 775,000 in 2013.
· The overall passenger load factor for the month was up 1.6 percentage points to 83.3% compared to 81.7% in September 2013.
· The long haul passenger load factor increased to 91.5% from 88.7% in September 2013, whilst the short haul load factor was 77.4% compared to 77.7% in September the previous year.
· Total Aer Lingus passengers for the first nine months of the year were up 4.5% to 8.692 million