Aer Lingus announces Q3 profits
Aer Lingus has announced an operating profit of €90.9m for the period from July 1 to September 30.
Operating profit to date in 2012 is now €86.5m, 29.7% ahead of the previous year.
Total passenger numbers in Q3 2012 (including Aer Lingus Regional) increased by 2%, whilst the overall yield per passenger increased by 7.2%.
Long-haul yields increased by 11.5% on the previous year.
Passenger revenue for the third quarter was 5.5% ahead of Q3 2011.
Aer Lingus’ gross cash at September 30, 2012 was €990.8m, €63.5m up on 2011, after allowing for a total €16m dividend payment to shareholders in Q3 2012.
Commenting on the performance Christoph Mueller, Aer Lingus’ CEO said: "The positive Q3 2012 result reflects the on-going success of our strategy to manage capacity deployment across the network, concentrating on serving higher yielding, time sensitive demand and continuing to focus on cost reduction.
"I am particularly proud that our team has achieved this result against the backdrop of the third Ryanair offer for the Group.
"We over achieved our 'Greenfield' cost saving target with more than €100m annual savings and were also pleased to pay our first dividend to shareholders during the period.
"Overall, this strong Q3 result follows on from a solid 2012 first half performance.
"We remain focused on achieving continued cost savings and greater efficiency within the business against a challenging macro-economic backdrop, an increasingly competitive environment and continued inflation in fuel prices and airport charges.
"Forward bookings at the end of Q3 were stronger than in the same period last year. Due to increased demand, an additional aircraft is required to serve our long haul network on the North Atlantic.
"Fortunately, we have an A330 returning to our fleet from the extended codeshare with United Airlines and we will redeploy this aircraft to serve our North Atlantic market."
