Aer Lingus says its operating profits for the third quarter of this year are up 35.4% to €79.2m.
In an interim management statement, the airline said its yield per passenger is up 12.5% for the three-month period and up 10.2% in the year to date.
Aer Lingus said its revenue in the third quarter increased by 5.5% compared to the same time last year, despite an 11.7% reduction in capacity due to planned reductions in US and Gatwick services.
The airline said its short-haul passenger fare revenues rose by 4.9% to €249.3m. Average short-haul yield per passenger increased by 11.1% while passenger volumes fell by 5.6%. Its long haul revenues rose by 7.7% to €97.9m.
Aer Lingus said its 'Greenfield' cost reduction programme continues to make good progress and staff costs savings under the programme over the first nine months of 2010 amount to €22m. The full year effect of these staff savings will be €35m.
The airline said the outlook for the remainder of 2010 is unchanged and it repeated its full year guidance. It says it expects operating profit before exceptional items to be at the top of market forecasts.
But it says it continues to have concerns about the sustainability of the current aviation sector recovery in Europe and the US. 'In addition, Aer Lingus remains exposed to the continuing weakness of the Irish economy,' it added.
It also noted the uncertain impact that proposed austerity measures may have on Irish and UK consumer confidence and spending.
'Our performance in the third quarter and year to date is a very significant improvement on 2009 and strongly support our strategy,' commented Christoph Mueller, the company's chief executive.
'However, we remain cautious on the outlook for 2011 given concerns about the durability of the recent aviation sector performance as well as continuing economic uncertainty in our primary markets,' he added.
