Threatened strikes dent Aer Lingus profits
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Threatened industrial action and the late timing of Easter contributed to Aer Lingus posting deeper losses in the first quarter of this year.
The Irish airline posted an operating loss of EUR48.5 million (US$67.2m, GBP39.8m), for the first quarter after being forced to cancel flights in advance of St Patrick’s Day weekend and rebooking passengers.
The result was EUR3 million or 6.6% higher than Q1 2013, while its total passenger revenue dropped EUR10m to EUR236.6m.
Aer Lingus expects to see similar operating result this year to 2013, when the carrier saw a full-year operating profit of EUR61.1 million.
“As previously guided, our first quarter passenger revenue was slightly weaker than 2013 reflecting the timing of Easter in 2014. Our operating result is EUR3 million lower than last year primarily due to the adverse effect of threatened industrial action by the SIPTU trade union in advance of St. Patrick’s weekend in March 2014. This threatened action, which was withdrawn only at a very late stage, resulted in numerous forced flight cancellations and aircraft hire-ins. This had a directly negative impact on our Q1 2014 operating result,” said Christoph Mueller, CEO of Aer Lingus.
“Our short haul operation remains an attractive and profitable business despite the continuation of intense price competition in European markets. Forward trends are positive, especially in long haul. We continue to expect that our operating result for 2014 will be broadly in line with 2013,” he added.
The airline is now focused on its two-year CORE programme to optimise costs; enhance revenues and improve staff engagement.
New long-haul services have also just been launched to San Francisco and Toronto, while new flights from Shannon to Boston and New York have been introduced this year.
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