Aircoach enjoys dramatic turnaround with €3m annual profit

The operator of the Aircoach public transport service enjoyed a dramatic turnaround in fortunes in its last financial year by recording pre-tax profits of €3m.

Newly-filed accounts for Last Passive Ltd — a subsidiary of Aircoach’s ultimate owner, UK company FirstGroup — also show a 20% jump in annual revenues to €21.83m for the 12 months to the end of last March.

The return to profit follows two consecutive loss-making years, with the coach service operator incurring a pre-tax loss of €773,000 in 2014.

“Aircoach’s revenues continue to increase due to the previous expansion to include the non-stop express services on two major route corridors and as a result of the improving general economic climate,” the company’s directors said.

They add that “the company remains ideally-placed to benefit from the planned liberalisation of public transport markets both in the Republic and Northern Ireland”.

“The company will also be aggressively exploring all opportunities to develop its scheduled service business and contract bus operations during the forthcoming year,” they added.

The firm serves Dublin Airport every 15 minutes from different routes south of the city, along with a host of other routes, including a service from Cork to Dublin airport.

The Irish operator employs 191 people and staff costs, last year, increased marginally to €7.5m.

As of the end of March 2015, it had cash reserves of €11.6m and net assets of €3.9m.

“The directors have considered the going concern assumption given the improvement in the economic climate and have formed the conclusion that there is a reasonable expectation that the company will continue to operate in the foreseeable future,” the accounts said.