Vueling Sept traffic up 91 pct with Clickair

Spanish no-frills airline Vueling on Friday posted a 91 percent climb in passenger traffic to 955,708 in September from a year ago, helped by its merger with Iberia's low-cost subsidiary Clickair in July.

Vueling's load factor, which measures how full its planes are, rose 6.6 percentage points to 76.9 percent in September.

An doubling in the airline's Madrid-Barcelona route to 10 flights per day in September also helped fuel the strong numbers, a Vueling spokesman said, as the company captured business clients who are seeking cheaper travel. "We're increasing the Madrid-Barcelona flights to 12 a day this month," the spokesman said.

Low-cost European rivals like EasyJet's and Ryanair also recorded rises in passenger numbers in September, boosting hopes that demand for budget air travel was recovering from the slump caused by the global recession.

Domestic rival Iberia is due to publish its September traffic figures on Oct 15.