€6.5m profit for CityJet
The airline, which is based in Dublin, said that its revenue had risen to €153m, while net liabilities were reduced from €7m to €2.4m.
Geoffrey O’Byrne-White said the results were achieved in a difficult operating and global environment and was largely due to stringent control over operating costs and a business strategy based on sustainable development of the Charles de Gaulle hub in Paris.
“Considering the general state of the aviation industry, it was a pretty good year. The traditional reliance on forward bookings has changed; people are booking later, but generally it is picking up.”
He said the airline was carrying more passengers than Aer Lingus and Ryanair out of Dublin Airport to Charles de Gaulle in Paris.
Mr O’Byrne-White added: “we are also encouraged by the Dublin-London route and we intend to increase our frequency from four to six in late February.”
He gave his backing to the splitting of Aer Rianta into its three airports and said he was not ruling out expansion from either Cork or Shannon airports.
“I think the autonomy will be a good thing and both Shannon and are efficient airports and both have good infrastructure compared to a lot of airports in Europe. We keep in constant contact, especially with Shannon and they are keen to get connections to Charles de Gaulle.”
Meanwhile, Germany’s national airline Lufthansa expects to break-even in this year and return to profitability next year.
Chairman Wolfgang Mayrhuber said yesterday that although the flag carrier posted a record first quarter operating loss of €415 million the airline can achieve a balanced operating result this year.
In November, it said it expected a “nearly balanced” operating result this year. Previous to that it had forecast a full-year operating loss. Mr Mayrhuber said Lufthansa expects to return to profitability in 2004, but added this will depend on the economic, political and geopolitical environment.
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