Last checked at 
LONDON (Alliance News) - Aer Lingus Group PLC on Friday reported a rise in passenger traffic and in its load factor in August, compared to the same month the year before.
The Irish airline, which is in the process of being acquired by International Consolidated Airlines Group, said that its mainline passenger traffic grew 7.3% to 1.14 million passengers in August from 1.16 million a year earlier, as its load factor increased by 2.5 percentage points to 90.3% from 87.8%.
Total Aer Lingus traffic statistics including Aer Lingus Regional rose 5.3% to 1.3 million from 1.2 million, while revenue passenger kilometres grew by 13.6%.
Aer Lingus's positive traffic report confirmed a strong month of August for all UK-listed airlines.
On Thursday, IAG, which owns British Airways and Spanish airlines Iberia and Vueling, reported a 12.4% increase in passenger numbers in August to 9.1 million from 8.1 million, while its load factor rose to 86.6% from 84.7%.
Also on Thursday, low-cost airlines easyJet PLC and Wizz Air Holdings PLC released their traffic statistics.
easyJet said its load factor in August was 94.4%, a new monthly record for the company increasing from 94.2% a year earlier, while passenger numbers increased by 6.8% to 7.1 million, another record, from 6.6 million.
Wizz Air said that it carried 2.0 million passengers in the month, up 19% on the 1.7 million it carried a year earlier, as its load factor increased by one percentage point to 93.2%.
Meanwhile, Ryanair Holdings PLC, which posted its traffic statistics on Wednesday, said that it carried 10.4 million passengers in August, a 10% rise on the 9.4 million it carried the year before, and its load factor grew by two percentage points to 95%.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
