Aer Lingus 'Committed To Belfast Hub'

The Irish airline, Aer Lingus, has said that net losses narrowed in the first half of the year and that it was on course for an annual profit.

It has reported operating losses of €27.8m, or £24.6m, in the first half of 2011 but had a strong second quarter, taking profits of €25.9m.

The airline said passenger numbers also rose by 8.3% to the end of June, with an associated 8.4% increase in yield per passenger.

Aer Lingus added that it remains committed to its Belfast operation but said there were no plans to start an American route should Continental pull out of its Belfast International to Newark service.

"We don't really comment on the profitability of how our particular bases perform but the Belfast base is efficient, it's got a good base and although the demand conditions are very challenging at the moment, we are actually very pleased with how it is going," Andrew Macfarlane from Aer Lingus said.

Chief Executive Christoph Mueller said: "We are more positive about the profitability of the business in 2011 than we were at the start of the year."

This is despite the fact that the airline reported an operating loss of almost €28m for the first six months of this year: with a pretax loss standing at €14.2m.

The loss of €27.8m operating costs for the first six months of 2011 compares to a loss of €19m for the same period in the previous year.

But, according to Aer Lingus net losses narrowed to €13.1m and Christoph Mueller said that the results had been hit mainly by the impact of a cabin crew strike which cost €15m in the first quarter but forecast that the group would turn a profit later in 2011.

Indeed the airline's share price rose by 9.3% in Dublin yesterday in spite of the airline recording this pretax loss.

Aer Lingus said its booking profile into the fourth quarter of the year was strong. Its sales growth in the second half is expected to be similar to the first six months, when revenues rose by 5.8% to €569m.

Andrew Macfarlane said: "We have had a really good second quarter and we are sufficiently confident that we are increasing our guidance for the year."

"Looking ahead at our booking profile we are more confident now about the result for the year than we were earlier.

"We will struggle to do quite as well as we did last year - obviously one of the things we are looking at is the big increase in fuel prices," he added.

(BMcC)