Aer Lingus has announced a three percent hike in passenger numbers for regional routes for the month of July, despite the decline that Ireland’s airline industry has been seeing lately.

Inside Ireland reported that a total of 1,105,000 passengers chose the airline to make their travels this past month, surpassing the number for July 2010 with a 47.2 percent increase in its bookings.
http://insideireland.ie/2011/08/08/passenger-numbers-increase-for-aer-lingus-28346/

Short haul passengers went up as well, with a 1.1 percent raise in travelers as compared to last year, reaching about 930,000, reinforcing the decision to increase capacity on short haul flights.

The carrier’s long haul flights did not turn up such positive results, with passenger numbers decreasing by three percent compared to 2010, down to 96,000 passengers, and were only able to fill 86.8 percent of seats despite a 0.5 percent increase in capacity.
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With Irish officials prompting people to stay local while vacationing in order to boost the Irish economy through tourism, many airlines have suspended several international flights to places like the U.S.

The second largest airline in the country, Aer Lingus, was among those airlines when earlier in the year it cancelled its flight from Shannon to the U.S.

There is no telling whether the airline will benefit or suffer from the cuts of long haul services.