The chairman of Aer Lingus has told its shareholders the airline still expects to report 'mid-teens' percentage growth in operating profits this year despite intense competition. This is in line with its previous outlook.
John Sharman was speaking at the airline's first AGM since it floated on the stock exchange last year. At the meeting, 25% shareholder Ryanair voted against one of the resolutions, a technical measure which would have allowed the company to issue more shares.
He said Aer Lingus was increasing its capacity by almost 15% this year - 19% on long-haul routes, 11% on short-haul - and this was affecting load factors. Load factor measures the percentage of seats filled.
Earlier, Aer Lingus announced that it carried 852,000 passengers in June, an increase of just over 10% on the same month last year. But its load factor - the percentage of seats filled - fell back 1.2 points to 80.1%.
Chief executive Dermot Mannion described the performance as 'robust' in a period where it increased its short-haul capacity through the introduction of three new planes, while an extra long-haul plane was also brought in in June.
For the first half of 2007, passenger numbers were up 5.9% to just under 4.4 million, while the load factor fell 1.8 points to 75.3%.
Long-haul passenger numbers in June grew by 14.7%, while short-haul numbers were up 9.4%. Load factors fell by 1.4 points and one point respectively.
For the six months, long-haul passengers rose by 2.3% and short-haul by 6.5%. The long-haul load factor was down 1.3 points, short-haul down two points.
Shares in Aer Lingus ended up three cent at €2.57 in Dublin.
