CAA provisional traffic figures for October

The UK CAA today released the provisional traffic figures for October.

On the DUB-LHR route passenger numbers show a 3% Month on Month (MoM) increase over September but a 11.3% reduction over the same month last year. Year on Year (YoY) the route has lost 8%.

The loss of Heathrow passengers to Gatwick continues this month, with DUB-LGW increasing 11.4% over September, unusual for the time of year, with a 24.6% YoY improvement for the month.

In Cork, the London battle between Ryanair and Aer Lingus would still appear to be swinging Ryanair's way after Aer Lingus' gains earlier in the year. CRK-STN is down 1.5% YoY and CRK-STN is down 2.1% YoY but Aer Lingus, who earlier in the year were showing a very healthy double digit YoYgrowth over 2007 on the LHR route probably did well in October not to let the passenger numbers slide below last year's October figure of 42,560.

In Shannon, the LGW route shows a 68% YoY growth in numbers in absolute terms, due to the second daily service. This consolidates the year to date growth on the route which stood at 67% in September. The SNN-STN route bucked the September trend and showed MoM growth, leading to a YoY growth of almost 25% which mirrors the increase in capacity on the route. 

On the BEL-LHR route, Aer Lingus traffic on the route was virtually static MoM on the route at 24,528, compared to the SNN-LHR October average of 28,629 in the previous five years. The average year to date load factor has been calculated at 54% on BEL-LHR using the CAA's monthly figures, compared to 66% on SNN-LHR using the same criteria.