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Budget airlines’ numbers reveal mixed fortunes

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EasyJet flew an additional 6.1% more passengers last month over February 2013.

The budget airline’s carryings reached almost 4.5 million against 4.2 million a year earlier, while the load factor edged up by 0.2 percentge points to 90.9%.

Carryings in the year to February grew by 6.5% to more than 65.6 million passengers.

Meanwhile, low-cost carrier Norwegian admitted that a strike by pilots had led to a drop in ticket sales for this month, especially on domestic routes in Scandinavia.

The airline saw carryings rise by 17% in February to more than 1.6 million.

Chief executive Bjørn Kjos said: “2015 got off to a good start until the pilot strike hit us, which has influenced our traffic figures.

“The situation is deeply regrettable. Although our traffic is running as normal on our long-haul operation and from our bases outside Scandinavia, the strike still affects the entire company.”

Aer Lingus February passenger numbers were down by 2% to 627,000 year-on-year due to a decline in short-haul carryings as capacity was reduced.

The Irish carrier, subject to a potential £1 billion takeover bid by British Airways parent International Airlines Group, saw short-haul numbers drop by 2.9% to 497,000 while Aer Lingus Regional numbers were down by almost 10% to 74,000.

Long-haul carryings rose by 0.9% to 553,000 passengers.

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