The directors of the luggage handling firm that apologised for its role in the number of bags that went missing at Dublin airport last July state that staffing issues have been addressed for the upcoming summer season.
New accounts for Swissport Ireland Ltd show that it recorded pre-tax profits of €14.4m in 2021 as the aviation sector began to recover from Covid-19 pandemic travel restrictions.
A chief factor behind the surge in pre-tax profit was the company receiving €8.38m in State Covid-19 wage supports for 2021 compared to €2.62m under that heading in 2020 when the business records a pre-tax profit of €291,000.
In accounts signed off on March 23 last week, they show that the firm recorded the large hike in profits as revenues increased by 23% from €26.4m to €32.56m in 2021.
In response to the upsurge in air travel in 2021, numbers employed rebounded rising from 446 to 781 as wage costs, before the Covid-19 wage supports, totalled €15.5m.
Severance and redundancy costs totalled €153,000 compared to €719,000 in 2020 under that heading.
The firm provides services to airlines operating from Dublin, Shannon and Cork airports.
Last July, the company issued an apology to Dublin airport users with a company spokesman stating that it was "very sorry for our part in the disruption people are experiencing. We are working hard to address our resource challenges".
Addressing the problems the company encountered last Summer, the directors state that "there was a significant challenge in 2022 to recruit and train enough staff to meet the surge in demand and labour, although this has been addressed for the upcoming Summer season".
They state that the latest industry intelligence is forecasting Summer 2023 to be ahead of 2022.
The directors state that the operating profit of €6.19m in 2021 followed an operating loss of €1.2m in 2020.
They also said that under the circumstances "this is a very positive result, reflecting the strength, commitment, and professionalism of our management and all our employees".
They said the company "believes it is well positioned as the partner of choice for airlines as they prepare to turn the page from Covid-19 and ramp up operations in the future".
The profit for 2021 takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €1.25m. Operating lease costs totalled €1.65m.
At the end of 2021, the firm's shareholder funds totalled €23.25m while its cash funds tripled from €5.93m to €18.1m.
A note attached to the accounts states that on February 23 2022, certain Swissport systems were affected by a cybersecurity incident affecting a data centre in Germany.
The note states that February 6 2022, a short note was identified, purportedly from a threat actor who claimed to have undertaken a ransomware attack, and who claimed to have taken certain files containing personal information, but without providing any evidence.
The note states that "we have determined that no personal data triggering notification requirements and relating to data subjects located in Ireland or the United Kingdom or Jersey were affected by this incident".
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
