Aer Lingus entered the new year with reduced short-haul carryings but a rise in long-haul passengers.
The Irish carrier, at the centre of a takeover bid by British Airways owner International Airlines Group, saw total January numbers fall by 5.7% year-on-year to 614,000.
Short-haul carryings dropped by 7.6% to 474,000 while Aer Lingus regional numbers were down by almost 14% to 68,000.
However, long-haul passengers using the airline’s transatlantic services rose by 22% from 59,000 in January 2014 to 72,000 last month.
The overall load factor was up by 2.4 percentage points to 68.9%, with improvements in both short-haul and long-haul.
Meanwhile, budget carrier easyJet’s passenger carryings were pegged at just over four million in January over the same month last year.
While carryings remained unchanged, load factor slid marginally by 0.3 percentage points to 85.1%.
The airline’s annual carryings for the 12 months to January increased by 6.3% to 65.3 million with an improved load factor of 90.8%.