Irish Airline's Lock Horns On Passenger Numbers

Irish airlines Ryanair and Aer Lingus are both said to have 'suffered' falling numbers on two of their respective services.

First, the Shannon region is again being hit as Ryanair – which has been vocal in its criticism of the Aer Lingus withdrawal of its London Heathrow route in favour of the new Belfast 'hub', has quietly cancelled its Shannon to Dublin flights.

Said to be because passenger numbers were below the 'network average', it highlights last week's war of words over passenger numbers on the Irish flag carriers' maiden voyage from Belfast International Airport to Heathrow.

Ryanair, - a major shareholder of Aer Lingus – issued a press statement highlighting Aer Lingus' alleged failure to fill seats on their first Heathrow-bound planes.

According to Ryanair, just 39 seats were filled on the plane, meaning more than three quarters of the 174-seater plane was empty.

As Aer Lingus officials gathered last week in Belfast to celebrate the first Heathrow flights, Ryanair said that such a "tiny load is a disaster".

However, Aer Lingus corporate affairs director, Enda Corneille, rejected Ryanair's figures as 'completely inaccurate.'

She said: "The first plane was packed to the rafters and the later ones were virtually full as well. The rest is just total baloney from Ryanair. We must really be hitting Ryanair or they wouldn't be coming out with this kind of stuff."

Ryanair's head of communications Peter Sherrard later clarified that Ryanair's numbers were based on the number of passengers it had observed checking in at the airport.

Asked whether additional passengers could have checked-in online, he admitted that "possibly a few passengers would have".

(BMcC)