Aer Lingus has seen its pre-tax losses grow by 14.2 per cent to €28.2 million during the first half of 2013.
The Irish carrier said that “weaker trading on UK routes” was one of the reasons for the higher losses alongside “one-off factors” such as changes to its long-haul fleet, higher maintenance costs and start-up expenses for its new contract flying operations.
Aer Lingus was boosted by a 1.3 per cent rise in passengers to 4.57 million during the six months while revenue rose by 5 per cent to €657.9 million and average fare per seat was up by 5.6 per cent to €84.56.
Despite the increased losses, chief executive Christoph Mueller (pictured) described the airline’s performance as “excellent” during the first half of this year.
“Our quarter two 2013 revenue performance was particularly strong. We expanded long-haul capacity by 16.3 per cent in the quarter and successfully sold the additional seats, achieving a load factor of almost 95 per cent in June,” he added.
“Short-haul continues to trade positively. However, the weakness in UK routes identified in our quarter one results has continued in quarter two.
“We continue to focus on our cost base and are conscious that certain planned cost-saving initiatives have not had effect as quickly as we had initially hoped.”
Aer Lingus said that bookings for the second half of 2013 were ahead of last year up to the end of June, but admitted that “warm weather has negatively impacted bookings in July”.