Aer Lingus Seeing Underlying Momentum After Strong Fourth Quarter

Aer Lingus has posted a full-year operating profit of €205m for 2024 – the result being hampered by last summer’s pilots dispute and resulting loss of trade, but also helped by a strong end of the year in the fourth quarter.

The profit figure was down from €225m in 2023.

The second and third quarters of the year were impacted by Aer Lingus’ pilot industrial action and increases in transatlantic competition.

However, the airline saw a strong fourth quarter, with a €56.7m operating profit; significantly up on the corresponding 3-month period last year.

For the full year, Aer Lingus also saw a 3% increase in passenger numbers, to 11 million people.

Last year also saw Aer Lingus operate its largest-ever North American network starting new routes to Denver, Minneapolis St. Paul and Las Vegas. Aer Lingus now has the fourth largest number of North American destinations amongst European airlines. Aer Lingus also added more routes and capacity to European destinations from Ireland.

Aer Lingus Chief Executive Lynne Embleton said: “These results, and in particular the positive performance in Quarter 4 2024, demonstrate underlying momentum within the business. With additional A321 XLRs joining our fleet, Aer Lingus has a compelling growth ambition that will benefit the airline, our customers, our employees and the economy. We remain focussed on continually improving our efficiency and productivity in order to further invest in growth, enhanced customer experience and sustainability. We welcome the clear commitment in the programme for Government to address the passenger cap issue – it is critical that the Government urgently implements a solution that gives the longer-term certainty that is needed.”

Furthermore, 2024 was a year of significant investment– in new fleet, customer experience and technology. The first two of six A321 XLRs joined the fleet enabling route expansion and delivering reduced carbon emissions. The full refurbishment of the Aer Lingus Lounge at London Heathrow, investments in in-flight menus and entertainment, a new app with real-time updates, all contributed to improved customer experience. The investment in new ‘Connected Crew’ technology for Cabin Crew enabled the digitisation of many manual onboard processes and also enhanced service to customers.