Aer Lingus reports revenues of €259.4 million for First Quarter 2014

Aer Lingus today announced its results from 1 January to 31 March 2014, representing the first quarter (Q1) of the Company’s 2014 financial year.

The first quarter is seasonally loss making, and Aer Lingus recorded an operating loss of €48.5 million which was €3.0 million higher than Q1 2013. This result reflects the later timing of Easter in 2014 and the negative effect of threatened industrial action on booking volumes in March.

Q1 2014 revenues at €259.4 million were broadly flat year-on-year (2013: €259.7 million) with the positive impact of contract flying activities compensating for lower Easter related traffic. Retail revenue was up 6.0% to €38.7 million with retail spend per passenger up 10.1% to €21.09 for the quarter.

Following the expansion of Aer Lingus’ transatlantic services earlier this year, three additional Boeing 757 aircraft are now operational and are expected to drive an increase in full year 2014 long haul capacity of greater than 20%.

Aer Lingus remains financially strong with gross cash of €1.02 billion at 31 March 2014, up from €1.01 billion in Q1 the previous year, and net cash of €553.7 million (2013: €484.4 million).

The company expects 2014 operating profits to be broadly in line with levels achieved in 2013.

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

“As previously guided, our first quarter revenue was slightly weaker than 2013 reflecting the timing of Easter in 2014. Our operating result is €3 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 This threatened action, which was withdrawn only at a very late stage, resulted in numerous forced flight cancellations and aircraft hire-ins.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.

The need to maintain our differentiation and tightly manage our cost base is very clear to us. The timely and effective execution of our recently announced CORE programme is imperative if Aer Lingus is to continue to grow profitably for the medium term.

I am pleased to report that CORE remains on plan. We will communicate more specific details of the CORE programme to employees and unions in May 2014.

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.”

A more detailed account of the Q1 results is attached and available on aerlingus.com http://corporate.aerlingus.com/investorrelations/