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Date: Friday 05 Sep 2008

LONDON (ShareCast) - Budget airline easyJet carried almost 24% more passengers in August than it did the year before, while passenger numbers grew by 8.8% at rival Aer Lingus last month.

Almost 4.6m people flew with the orange-liveried carrier, which increased its load factor, a measure of how well it fills its planes, to 91.3% from 87.4% a year ago.

Meanwhile, Aer Lingus saw the number of short haul passengers rise 10.6%, but long haul drop 2.3%.

Short haul load factor was slightly ahead of 2007 at 83% despite a 15.4% increase in capacity, while long haul load factor fell to 77.5% from 80.3% in 2007.

Yesterday, Ryanair said it flew 5.78m passengers in August, 19% more than a year ago, despite a Europe-wide economic slowdown, but the load factor dropped to 90% from 91% a year earlier due to increased capacity.

“Ryanair are confident that passenger numbers will continue to remain strong,” said the Dublin-based group which owns just under 30% of Aer Lingus.

Aer Lingus recently reported an operating loss of €22.3m for the six months ended 30 June 2008 versus a profit last year of €2.6m following a €56.5m (49%) hike in fuel costs.

A pre-tax profit of €11.5m in 2007 turned into a €20.2m loss this time on revenue 10% higher at €632.9m.

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