The Aer Lingus Belfast City to London Heathrow flight contributed to a relatively strong performance for parent company IAG’s domestic business, despite another large loss for the Republic’s flag carrier.
Latest accounts reported to the London Stock Exchange showed IAG’s domestic market recorded a load factor – the percentage of scheduled seats it filled – at 74.9% in 2021, down just 12.3% on 2019, the year used for comparison prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, and up 3.9% up on 2020.
IAG, which also owns British Airways, Iberia and Vueling, said the Aer Lingus shuttle service from Belfast City to Heathrow benefited from the trend for UK holidaymakers opting for domestic breaks during the year due to the strict and expensive entry requirements for a number of overseas countries.
However, the year will be marked as another of significant disruption for the airline industry which saw Aer Lingus notch up operating losses of €347 million (£291M) in 2021, down on the €361 (£302M) recorded in 2020. IAG as a whole recorded an operating loss of €2.97 billion (2.49B) in 2021, against a loss of €4.39B (£3.68B) the previous year.
Lynne Embleton, chief executive officer of Aer Lingus, lay the blame for the airline’s performance on the fact Ireland continued to impose the most stringent and longest-lasting travel restrictions in Europe. She said the trans Atlantic services had been hit by travel restrictions in the US.
“For almost two years, the national narrative in Ireland was intensely anti-travel, compounded by the enforcement of mandatory hotel quarantine. As a result, passenger numbers in 2021 were less than 25 per cent of 2019 levels,” she said. “The reaction to the Omicron variant in terms of reintroducing restrictions at the end of 2021 also dampened the nascent recovery and was a further setback for Aer Lingus.”
Because of that, Aer Lingus losses during the past two years came close to €1M (£840,000) every day.
There is a more optimistic outlook for the coming year, although a pragmatic view of how long it will take the airline to fully recover.
“The demand environment is now much more positive and Aer Lingus can look forward with optimism to more normal levels of flying over the course of 2022,” Ms Embleton said. “However, the financial damage caused to the company over the last two years will take time to repair, in particular dealing with the debt which the company has accumulated.
“We also need to invest in adding new aircraft to our fleet. For these reasons the company will have to carefully manage its cost base and ensure that it is efficient and competitive going forward.”
