Dublin Airport Authority sees profits take off

The Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) has announced a 54% rise in profits in its financials results for 2004 today.

The company announced profits of €31.1m for the year ending December 31, 2004. With profits of 20.2m in 2003, this represents a 54% increase.

Turnover rose by 6.6% last year to €466m.

"Unless addressed, in time these could undermine the viability and potential development of the

All the DAA's key profitability benchmarks moved in a positive direction during 2004, but the Company is still not generating sufficient profits to finance its capital investment requirements appropriately. Net debt increased by €7m to €384m.

As mandated by the State Airports Act, strategic business plans are currently being formulated by the Dublin, Shannon and Cork Airport Authorities.

If approved by the appropriate boards, these plans will be presented to the Ministers for Transport and Finance for their evaluation as to whether the three airports have a viable future as separate, self-sustaining business entities.

Passenger numbers increased by 6.6% to 21.8m across the three airports, Dublin, Shannon and Cork last year. This represented the highest level of growth since 2000.

Passenger numbers at Dublin Airport rose by 8% to 17.2m, an 8% increase compared with 2003.

Overall passenger numbers through Shannon last year were on a par with the previous year at 2.4m, while passenger volumes increased at Cork by 3% to 2.25m.

Aer Rianta International (ARI) DAA's subsidiary company, which manages airport investments and airport retailing activities overseas, improved its profitability significantly last year after a difficult year in 2003.

The profit contribution from ARI's combined international interests rose to €9.6m in 2004 from €5.1m the previous year.

Losses at Great Southern Hotels (GSH) amounted to €2.2m last year.

This compares with profits of €2.9 m in 2003, though these incorporated exceptional gains of €3.8m before tax, arising from the disposal of the Torc Hotel in Killarney.