Aer Lingus delivers 5% revenue growth in first half of 2013

Aer Lingus today announced its results for the three month (Q2) and six month (H1) periods ended 30 June 2013.

The airline recorded a strong Q2 performance with revenues up 6.2% to €398.2 million (2012: €374.8 million). This brought overall revenues for the first half of the year to €657.9 million, an increase of 5% compared to the same period in 2012.

In Q2 average fare revenue per seat was up 4.8% to €92.14 with growth on short and long haul routes. Long haul performance was particularly strong with passenger numbers up 15.4%.

Fare revenue growth in Q2 of 5.6% exceeded the 4.1% growth level in the first quarter of the year. Long haul fare revenue grew by 16.2% with short haul growth of 1.1%.

A solid Q2 operating profit of €29.1 million was achieved despite the timing of Easter and weakness on UK routes which has impacted short haul revenue growth year on year.

Aer Lingus continues to maintain a strong balance sheet with €1,015.8 million in gross cash at 30 June 2013.

Commenting on the results, Christoph Mueller, Aer Lingus’ CEO said:

“Aer Lingus is pleased to report an excellent business performance for the first half of 2013 with passenger numbers increasing by 1.3%, load factor up 2.0 points and growth in fare revenue per seat across short and long haul routes.

Our Q2 2013 revenue performance was particularly strong. We expanded long haul capacity by 16.3% in the quarter and successfully sold the additional seats, achieving a load factor of almost 95% in June. Short haul continues to trade positively. However, the weakness in UK routes identified in our Q1 results has continued in Q2.

The first half of our financial year is seasonally loss making and we are reporting an operating loss (before exceptional items) which is €12.0 million higher than the prior year. This performance reflects the impact of a number of one-off factors including the start-up of our contract flying operations and planned changes to our long haul fleet.

Bookings for the remainder of the year at 30 June 2013 were ahead of prior year with long haul looking particularly positive for the next quarter. However, this booking profile has somewhat eroded over July due to the good weather. Nonetheless, we maintain our guidance that 2013 operating profit, before net exceptional items, will be broadly in line with 2012.”