AER LINGUS BLAMES LOW JUNE TRAFFIC NUMBERS ON PILOT STRIKE

Aer Lingus has blamed the threat of strike action by pilots that hung over the airline last month as one of the reasons why its booked passenger traffic for June fell 1.7pc to 925,000. The airline said that the number of booked passengers on its short-haul routes declined 1.4% to 837,000, while the figure for its transatlantic services was down 4.3% on last year to 88,000. The total booked load factor in June was 80% or 2.1% lower than in June 2010. On short-haul routes, the load factor for June was 78.6%, a fall of 1.1%. Capacity on Aer Lingus