Aer Lingus announced that it carried 658,000 passengers in February up 8.8% with a load factor of 67.3% up 1%. The airline carried 45,000 long-haul passengers up 15.4% with a load factor of 64.9% up 2.2% and 554,000 short-haul passengers up 6.9% with a load factor of 68.5% up 0.9%. The Aer Lingus Regional operation carried 59,000 passengers up 22.9% and as usual the figures exclude passengers carried on the United Airlines Joint-Venture Washington Dulles to Madrid
The Aer Lingus short-haul load-factor of 68.5% is above the AEA Airlines of 65.4% and on the long-haul the Aer Lingus long-haul load factor of 64.9% versus AEA Airlines at 72.6%, the information in based on AEA Data for the four weeks ended 26th of February.
Ryanair announced that it carried 4.47 million passengers in February down 2% with load factor of 76% and in the rolling 12 months to the end of February it carried 76.1 million passengers. The carrier’s traffic will have been boosted by the collapse of Malev Airlines and Spanair with the launch of the new Budapest Base and increased demand on routes from Barcelona
In Europe the Danish Trade Union 3F is seeking to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement for employees for Ryanair’s 48th European Base in Billund B, which has been rejected by Ryanair “Since all our workers are employed on Irish air territory and under Irish contracts, we have no interest in negotiating with the Irish, the Danes or any trade union” (NewEurope online 6th March).
Ryanair opens its 50th European Base in Paphos in April , however one of the unions representing Cyprus Airways staff warned that it will make a formal complaint on the joint agreement between the state and Hermes Airports to local and EU officials unless they get the same incentives as Ryanair (Famagusta Gazette 6th March).
Irish Aviation Research Institute © 6th March 2012 All Rights Reserved.
