DUBLIN, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Irish airline Aer Lingus on
Monday saw the most traffic on its website since the pandemic
began after the government's surprise decision to lift almost
all COVID-19 restrictions, a senior executive said on Wednesday.
Ireland scrapped almost all curbs on Saturday, moving far
quicker than had been expected to deliver a boost in confidence
to consumers who have been subjected to one of Europe's toughest
lockdown regimes for the last two years.
Irish travellers responded by looking to book ski and sun
breaks during next month's school holidays, city breaks for the
new double bank holiday in March as well as making plans for the
summer, Aer Lingus Chief Strategy and Planning Officer Reid
Moody said.
"We have been seeing good confidence building since the
start of the year but Friday's announcement gave a huge boost.
On Monday we had the busiest day we've seen on the website since
2020," Moody told national broadcaster RTE.
Aer Lingus, which is part of the International Airlines
Group alongside British Airways and Iberia, is also
seeing a return in demand from business travellers and U.S.
tourists wishing to travel to Ireland, Moody said.
It received a 150 million euro loan from Ireland's sovereign
wealth fund in 2020 to help it weather COVID-19 disruptions and
was still in talks with the state about possible additional
funding last October. Neither side has commented since.
Ryanair, Ireland's largest airline, declined to comment on
the impact of the government announcement on bookings.
The budget carrier, which reports results for its first
quarter on Monday, last week announced its largest ever summer
schedule from Dublin Airport and said it had experienced a "sea
change" in its confidence as the threat from the Omicron variant
of the coronavirus eased.
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin
Editing by Mark Heinrich)
International Airlines (IAG)
