Aer Lingus has warned that the summer heat wave has hit bookings and its profits. The airline said it now expects profits this year of €60 million, which is €9 million less than last year.

Aer Lingus says the good weather meant fewer people were booking flights abroad and it also blamed intense price cutting for the slip in profits.

The carrier said it intends to cut short-haul capacity by at least 3% in the fourth quarter.

Shares in Aer Lingus fell by nearly 7% on the Irish Stock exchange after the statement.

"The current booking profile for the rest of the year suggests that despite more aggressive pricing in response to market conditions, it will not be possible to recover lost volumes experienced in July and August as a result of the warm weather" it said in a trading update.

But the airline says that its long haul business continues "to perform strongly ahead of prior year despite some weakness evident in November 2013 relative to November 2012".

It adds that some of this weakness is because of disrupted passengers travelling in November 2012 rather than late October, as a result of Hurricane Sandy in the United States.

But it says that long haul bookings for the remainder of 2013 are currently ahead of last year.