Aer Lingus has posted a strong increase in operating profit for the year ending December 2003 as the state airline said it would push ahead with cost-cutting in an effort to drive down fares and compete in a tough market.
Operating profit rose 30% to €83m - ahead of its own €75m target - while profit after exceptional items was up 96% to €69.2m.
Turnover on continuing operations fell 7.3% to €888.3m, reflecting its drive to cut fares.
During the year Aer Lingus increased its passenger numbers by just over 6% to 6.6 million while its load factor - the number of people it carried on its flights - was up three points to 81%.
Despite worries over the war in Iraq, it was a record year for transatlantic traffic with passenger numbers up 19.4% to 1.1 million people. Continental European passenger numbers rose by 27.6% to 2.1 million.
Aer Lingus says it will add 13 new routes to its schedule this year and now carries 50% of its bookings on its website.
Aer Lingus Chief Executive Willie Walsh said the airline was pleased with the significant progress on a number of key issues during the year including the conclusion of arrangements for the transition to a single European fleet type by the end of 2005. The airline signed a deal with Airbus last year.
'While we are actively pursuing further growth in Europe, on our transatlantic operation, we continue to be constrained by existing Ireland/US bilateral arrangements which restrict our operation to five destinations in the US and which require equal services to/from Shannon and Dublin,' he said.
'I am confident that with the opening up of this market, we could grow our operation significantly to provide additional low fare capacity to our customers in the US and Europe on new and existing routes,' he added.
He said that competition within the European market is intense and added that the airline sees further low cost competition on key routes in 2004. He added that the airline was looking forward to the future with confidence.
'Our focus in 2004 will be to continue to drive the organisation to deliver low fares with a consistent service. We have set demanding performance targets for the year. Working together in a determined manner we can continue to build a sustainable and profitable business,' he concluded.
