EASYJET, the biggest carrier at Liverpool John Lennon airport by passenger numbers, saw monthly customer numbers fall in January.
Monthly stats out today revealed a 0.4% reduction in volumes, from 3.74m in January 2011 to 3.72m last month, despite a 3% increase in load factor, or the number of available seats sold, to 81.9% from 78.9%.
Douglas McNeil, of Liverpool stockbroker Charles Stanley Securities, said today: "Unusually, the past month has seen a year-on-year fall in passenger numbers.
"That reflects the decision to guard against the possibility of weak demand by keeping capacity more or less flat in this March quarter - indeed, there was a decrease on that measure, too, in January.
"The strong growth in yields seen recently suggests that this trade-off is working fairly well so far."
On a rolling 12 month basis passenger numbers show a healthy 10.2% improvement to January 2012, up from 50.32m to 55.45m, while the load factor is up 0.6% to 87.7%.
Charles Stanley said the stock is up 14% so far, this year, and maintains its 'hold' recommendation on Easyjet shares.
