Kerry Airport returns to profit on State supports and private jet business
Passenger numbers, which had fallen to 83,000 in 2020, rose to over 115,000 in 2021. File picture: Don MacMonagle
Shareholders who invested in Kerry Airport 30 years ago will not be paid dividends, despite “exceptional profit” in 2021, the airport AGM in Tralee heard on Tuesday.
However, the board of directors will consider "a gesture", such as car park use for free, said Kerry Airport chairman Denis Cregan.
The private Kerry Airport returned to profit in 2021, recording an after-tax surplus of just under €2.5m, up from a loss of just under €145,000 the previous year.
Passenger numbers, which had fallen to 83,000 in 2020, rose to more than 115,000 in 2021.
With the easing of Government restrictions, the fall in Covid numbers, and an increase in the public's desire to get back to normal, the airport was experiencing renewed confidence, the AGM was told. The corporate and general aviation business booked for 2022 was already 30% to 40% ahead of 2021 “and continues to grow”, the meeting heard.
Sun destinations were hugely in demand and twice-weekly flights to Portugal were set to run for seven months now instead of three. Connections to Malaga and the Canaries were also being sought for winter business.
In 2019, Sammy Haress, CEO of Jetstream Aviation Inc, a private jet management and operations company, was appointed to the board as representative of the bin Mahfouz family, the Saudi Arabian billionaire banker family which is a major shareholder in Kerry Airport since investing in the 1990s.
Kerry’s private jet and corporate business had grown significantly, and the airport is now third, after Dublin and Shannon, in terms of corporate private jet business. At least two large jets per week are flying directly to Farranfore from the US alone.
“People in the private sector have got to know us. Our private aviation business has surpassed Cork. Only on Saturday, three major 737s carrying USA tourists on vacation landed,” said airport chief executive John Mulhern.
A significant amount of the jet business is with high-income tourists, including golfers to courses such as Hog’s Head in Waterville, it was confirmed.
US congressmen and congresswomen had also recently flown into Ireland via Kerry direct from the US.
London solicitor Charles James, representing the Saudi shareholder, was at the meeting in Tralee. His client’s interest continued to be philanthropic and he was not expecting to make money, it heard.
From the floor, Killarney shareholder Kevin Moynihan asked if some gesture could be made to shareholders when there was “exceptional profit”.
“It’s clear the company had been hugely successful. The individual who invested 30 years ago are a good bit older and may be in a different financial situation,” said Mr Moynihan.
The last time he had proposed this, some seven years ago, he had been “ immediately shot down”, he said.
Chairman Denis Cregan agreed the profit was significant. “But we depend quite significantly on State aid and State funding,” said Mr Cregan. Any dividend would effectively be paid out of State funding and that would put the future of State investment in jeopardy, he said.
Capital grants from the State to Kerry amounted to almost €14.9m in 2021 and €12.7m in 2021.
“A lot of shareholders particularly invested a significant amount of time. A gesture is something we will consider at a future board meeting,” said Mr Cregan.
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