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AER LINGUS TODAY released figures for last month’s passenger traffic, with some 983,000 people travelling with the airline in September.
The total number has fallen 2.9 per cent on the same month last year, with short-haul numbers down 4.4 per cent. Over 100,000 passengers took long-haul flights in September while 775,000 were short-haul passengers.
While the overall figure is down, there was growth in some areas with the number of people going on long-haul flights surging 11.3 per cent since September 2012. The airline’s regional service also saw an increase of 14 per cent.
The passenger load figures were down down for all flights.
Just two days ago, the airline’s main rival Ryanair reported a three per cent increase in September’s passenger traffic compared to the same month last year with its load factor also rising.
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Ryanair vs Aer lingus … hands down win by a mile the latter. I would forgo the few extra euro to be treated like a paying customer and human being.
‘Like a human being’ come off it Ta f%$k yad swear they gassed everyone comin on board. I travel Ryanair or aerlingus whoever has the best price or time to suit me. And I see very little difference between them. Assigned seat on Aerlingus can be handy but that’s about it. I’ve had a lot more cancellations and delays with AL than I ever have with Ryanair .
Nothing to do with the extra Sunday in Sept last year? Most retail trade down similar per cent.
Great to see Ryanair seeing an increase.great to see an Irish company doing so well
This constant Comparing AerLingus with Ryanair is really annoying..AerLingus and Ryanair aren’t in the same league. Ryanair have over 250 aircraft , flying almost 80 million passengers annually; AerLingus have 45 aircraft flying just under 11 million passengers annually….No comparison…If anything AerlLingus have been very successful for a small European airline with their transatlantic business..They have successfully created a transatlantic hub at Dublin and it is growing..Despite the Governments best efforts to stop them.
Their transatlantic business is a remnant of their days as a state owned flag carrier. The achievement, if any, from recent times is that they have managed to retain this while offering terrible service and, for a time, the constant threat of strikes!
Alan Aerlingus had no transatlantic service worth talking about in their state owned days…The AL transatlantic service consisted of a daily flight to JFK with one compulsory stop at Shannon, and a daily flight to Boston with the same compulsory stop…The Shannon stop over renedered the transatlantic service unprofitable and uncompetitive , with no opportunity to develop a hub. The transatlantic service now consists of double daily to JFK , double daily to Boston , 12 weekly to Chicago and 3 weekly to Orlando. Next April San Francisco and Toronto will be added. As you can see above the transatlantic service now is a different world from their days as a “State owned carrier”. This year alone they will carry 1.8 million people on their transatlantic services..Thats more than the entire annual passenger figure for Shannon airport..33% of that 1.8 million is transfer traffic..How is that remnant of State carrier days..The transatlantic services are highly successful..Short haul is the problem..
If you bothered to read the article it mentions Ryanairs 3% rise not comparing them at all
Nelly…..I did read the article..I made the comment that so many people here pointlessly compare Ryanair to AerLingus..Irish people generally seem to believe that just because they are two original Irish airlines that should be compared…I’m simply stating for reasons I outlined that they are not remotely comparable…I don’t see why the article above you refer to ven mentions Ryanair’s 3% growth in an article about AerLingus..
aer lingus prices have gone up over the past 2 years….hard to get good bargains …i used to fly home 3 times a year but now i struggle to get home once a year. if they had cheaper flight like ryanair they might have more custom
I’m the same. The prices are way too high to encourage flying home more often.
I agree the cost to fly back to England last year was 80 now it’s about 120 I can’t afford to fly home much now and Ryan air don’t fly to The airport I need to land at.
Long haul up – emigrants or visits to emigrants
Short haul down – good weather and no spare cash.
Thomas Ryanair do short haul and they seen a 3% increase in flights.i wonder has it got to do with Ryanairs cheaper flights
Probably more to do with Ryanair having more bases all over Europe.
Thomas, over 900,000 passengers in September. I doubt that’s due to emigrants or people visiting emigrants. How many are leaving the country every year? Divide that figure by 12 and you’ll see that it’s insignificant compared to 900,000.
How does that tally with the fact that the UK is the biggest destination for emigrants?
“Long haul up” people from UK, north west region in particular using Dublin to fly to the US to beat excessive UK passenger tax and skip queues at US border by going thru in Dublin?
Aer lingus were actually a lot cheaper for me.weekend before xmas to newcastle.80e rtn whilst ryanair were 140e
And the flight times are much better.not stupid oclock like ryanair
Ryanair depart Dublin for Newcastle morning during the week at 9.30 and 11.00 am return to Dublin during the week. Hardly stupid O’Clock.
Alan…With the greatest respect to Newcastle…Dublin/Newcastle route is hardly the global leader in the aviation industry…AL regional fly twice daily , purely to feed the transatlantic routes..
In other news, yesterday was sunnier than today.
Last month AL announced that their passenger numbers were up and some confused people thought that Ryanair reducing their annual profit forecast meant their customers for the month/year were down too. This led to the proclamations that AL had turned a corner in the market because they offered superior service and their prices were the same or not significantly more than Ryanair. Now because their customers are down marginally the following month I see that the opposite is now true. Some serious seismic shifts going on in the airline industry going in in the last two months if the highly informed and rational posters on TheJournal.ie are the be believed.
Why are you talking about TransAVIAexport Airlines (AL)? The article is about Aer Lingus (EI).
Very clever John!
AL is the short of AerLingus…Not the radar code for ATC which is EI..
Aerlingus is just too expensive!! :(
Well when they take the piss and try to charge £285 for ONE WAY flight from Shannon to heathrow, it’s hardly surprising!!!
Will they blame the weather or kids goin back to school?
Weather
They are soooo expensive! Pricing themselves outta the market IMO .
Luckily for al that Ryanair don’t do long haul flights
yet!
Martin…That’s why Ryanair wanted to buy AL…They would have a ready made longhaul fleet…for nothing..
Let Ryanair have them. Give us realistic fares to the U.S.
BA offer the best value to LHR by far, no extras, friendly crew, a free drink and snack, it’s like back in the old days when this was the norm. Aer Lingus to LHR always works out more expensive
Who cares…Dublin Airport competes directly with Heathrow.
have your say