Kevin O'Toole/LONDON
AER LINGUS IS BACK making profits after the crises of the past two years, which executive chairman Bernie Cahill admits brought the Irish flag-carrier close to collapse.
The group has had to fight its way back from "the very edge of a precipice", says Cahill, revealing the airline group's latest financial results.
Because of an accounting change, the group has not published results since March 1993, when it sank to pre-tax losses of IR£47 million ($75 million). Aer Lingus reports that, over the 21 months to the end of 1994, it has managed to produce a nominal profit of IR£10.4 million before tax.
The result excludes charges of IR£92 million largely to cover restructuring, aircraft write-downs and the cost of the protracted strike at the TEAM Aer Lingus maintenance operation.
TEAM Aer Lingus, which resumed full operations at the start of 1995 under a new union agreement, made losses of IR£28 million over the 21-month period.
The recovery was led by a turnaround at the core Aer Lingus air-transport operations, which swang back from heavy losses to make a profit of nearly IR£41 million.
Aer Lingus highlights the introduction of Airbus A330 services from Dublin to New York. Since the services began a year ago, its traffic on the route has grown by 43%, with premium-class passenger numbers growing by 52%. Aer Lingus' total transatlantic traffic, including that from Shannon grew by 24% over 1994, says Cahill.
The airline has also forged ahead with plans to feed in traffic from UK provincial airports onto transatlantic flights from Dublin. As part of the strategy, Aer Lingus is taking on three British Aerospace 146-300 regional jets to replace its fleet of four Saab 340s.
The first of the 146-300s, on three-year lease from BAe's Asset Management Organisation, arrived on 18 April with the remainder due by early June (Flight International, 1-7 March).
Aer Lingus had to clear the fleet changes with the European Commission, which had imposed a cap on the group's capacity in return for approving a three-year IR£70 million package of state aid to the carrier. Aer Lingus argued that the 146s were replacing, rather than extending, capacity.
Source: Flight International
