Aer Lingus says business travel between Britain and Ireland is down

Aer Lingus is experiencing a “softness” in demand for short-haul business routes, with a particular drop-off in travel between Ireland and Britain, the airline’s chief executive Lynne Embleton said on Friday. Embleton was speaking after International Airlines Group (IAG), which owns Aer Lingus, published its results for the three months to March 31st. “Where we do see some weakness is in people travelling for business purposes, particularly short-haul, and particularly between Britain and Ireland actually, where we are seeing numbers down for people who are travelling for overnight or short business trips,” she said. “We’re seeing really good strength in short-haul leisure, particularly around the Mediterranean. We’ve got new routes to Greece and Italy this year, and they are going really, really well.” On whether inflation and rising interest would exacerbate the cost-of-living crisis and hit passenger numbers, Ms Embleton said travel has recovered from the Covid-19 crisis and that current high rates of travel would not be a flash in the pan. “We’ve put almost 20 per cent more fleets across the Atlantic than we had before the pandemic, and our passenger numbers have been keeping pace with that,” she said. “The strength is the rebound from pre-pandemic in Ireland, but also really strong demand from the rest and the exchange rate really helps that. We’re bringing a lot of Americans over to Ireland, and we’re seeing that in our load factors.""<br/>