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LONDON (Alliance News) - Aer Lingus Group PLC on Friday said its traffic in May increased on the back of a recovery in its short-haul performance and better long-haul figures.
The Irish flag carrier, which reports traffic figures measured in revenue passenger kilometres, said traffic rose by 6.8% in the month to 1.7 billion revenue passenger kilometres, from 1.59 billion a year earlier. It marks an improvement on its April numbers, when traffic fell 3.6% on the year, as a 7.5% drop in short-haul was only partially offset by a 1.5% increase for long-haul. In May, short-haul traffic rose by 2.6% on the year before, while long-haul increased by 12%.
Revenue passengers are those that pay commercial fares, and exclude free staff flights and free children's flights. Revenue passenger kilometres include the kilometres flown, by stages, and is an attempt to measure sales volume.
The airline also saw an improvement in its load factor in the month, up by 1.7 percentage points to 80.4% from 78.7% a year earlier.
Aer Lingus is currently the subject of a EUR1.4 billion takeover bid from International Consolidated Airlines Group, the owner of British Airways, in a deal which has now received backing from the Irish government. IAG still needs to secure the support of budget carrier Ryanair Holdings PLC, which owns a 29.8% stake in Aer Lingus.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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