Vueling April traffic jumps on new sales streams

MADRID, May 11 (Reuters) - Vueling (VULG.MC), the Spanish airline, increased passenger traffic by 11.3 percent in April on the back of Easter holidaymakers and new ways of selling its tickets, it said on Monday. Vueling bucked grim industry trends last month by predicting it would make its first full year profit this year after turning around the airline with a new route network focused towards business travellers, an income boost from non-fare revenue and cost cutting. "The outlook continues to be positive," a spokesman for Vueling said after the carrier published traffic statistics also showing its load factor -- a measure of how full its planes are -- rose by 7.7 percentage points to 75.4 percent compared to April 2008.

Easter fell in March last year, inflating the April numbers, but the spokesman said the seasonal effect was only part of the story. Vueling's decision to sell through electronic booking systems such as Amadeus as well as travel agents employed by corporate customers, was a big factor.

Among rivals, British Airways (BAY.L) flew 0.9 percent more passengers in April, EasyJet (EZJ.L) 6.3 percent more and Ryanair (RYA.I) posted a 12 percent jump. Iberia (IBLA.MC) publishes data on Tuesday.

Vueling is in the process of merging with Iberia's low-cost start-up Clickair and said last week that the new airline -- also known as Vueling -- expected synergies of some 65 million euros ($88.45 million) a year. ($1=.7349 Euro) (Reporting by Ben Harding; Editing by Hans Peters)