Aer Lingus reported today that said its passenger numbers rose by 7.7% to 1,089,000 in August compared with the same period in 2008.
Short-haul passenger numbers rose 10% to 973,000 while long-haul numbers fell by 8.3% to 116,000.
The former State airline, said its overall load factor - - the number of are filled on each aircraft - - increased by 2.4 percentage points to 83%, as capacity decreased by 0.7%.
The short-haul load factor rose by two percentage points to 85%, with capacity increased by 10.7%. The long-haul load factor also rose by two percentage points to 79.7%, with capacity falling by 14.8%.
On August 28th, Aer Lingus reported an operating loss of €93m in H1 2009 - - the first six months of the year. This compared to a loss of €23.4m the same time last year. Its revenue dipped by 12.2% to €555m.
Goodbody's Eamonn Hughes commented: "Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPKs) are up 2.3% and Available Seat Kilometres (ASKs) are down 0.7%. So load factors are up 2.4 percentage points to 83.0%.
In Short Haul, passengers carried are up 10.0% to 973k. RPKs are up 13.4%, with Gatwick presumably still a major contributor to this figure. ASKs are up 10.7%, implying that load factors were up 200bps to 85.0%. RPKs in short haul have been fairly steady around 13.3-13.5% for the last 3 months, outpacing ASK growth, with loads in positive territory now for the last three months, with the best load factor month yoy being August.
On Long Haul, the number of passengers carried was down 8.3%. RPKs were down 12.5%, but compared to a 14.8% reduction in ASKs, so loads up 210bps higher at 79.7%. RPKs were down 25% in LH in May, 18.2% in June, -17% in July, so August’s -12.5% shows the airline appears to have come off the worst. The airline has been taking out capacity since December, but the 210bps uptick in the August load factor is the first since April. So, again, a move in the right direction. In its recent interim results, we nudged out our operating loss to €142m for the year. However, we pared our pace of yield erosion in SH from 22% to 18.5%. Continuing evidence like today’s figures will add to confidence that our yield estimates are unlikely to deteriorate beyond what we have in our models.
Before we finish on Aer Lingus, we note the comments from the Ryanair CEO that he may yet succeed in buying Aer Lingus. “In another 18 months and with more redundancies, they’ll have burned their way through the last of the cash they have and will need to be rescued”. Nothing like a welcoming comment for the incoming Aer Lingus CEO, who started last Tuesday."
