A record load factor of 88% was achieved by low-cost carrier Norwegian in June, partly based on “solid growth” in long-haul operations.
The number of passengers carried rose by 7% last month over June 2014 to more than 2.4 million while the load factor was up by 5.5 percentage points.
Chief executive, Bjørn Kjos, said: “I’m pleased that so many choose to travel with Norwegian and that we can fill almost nine out of ten seats.
“We’re particularly happy with the development in our long-haul operation. At the same time, the weather has been in our favour as many Scandinavians have escaped the cold weather during the month of June.”
Norwegian operated 99.3% of its scheduled flights in June, with 79.6% departing on time. New handling agents came into service during the month, which also affected the on-time performance, the airline said.
EasyJet managed to raise passenger carryings by 7.6% in June despite almost 500 flights being cancelled during the month.
The budget carrier flew almost 6.6 million passengers over June last year. The load factor rose by 0.7 percentage points to 92.7% in the month.
EasyJet suffered 487 flight cancellations in June against 380 in the same month last year. Industrial action by Spanish air traffic controllers affected airlines in early June.
Meanwhile, a 15.6% increase in long haul carryings helped push up Aer Lingus’s overall passenger numbers in June.
Total carryings rose by 2% to more than 1.1 million over June last year with long haul numbers up by 15.6% to 163,000.
Short haul passenger numbers increased by 1.5% to 867.000 while Aer Lingus regional operations saw a 9.2% slump in carryings to 118,000.
Wizz Air’s June carryings were up by 18.2% to more than 1.7 million with a load factor increasing by 1.1 percentage points to 90.8%.
The eastern and central European low cost carrier introduced a new website in June which has been optimised for mobile devices and started flights from Birmingham airport.