Its chief executive Willie Walsh has said some discounts have been passed on to customers, but the reduction in fuel cost is not as significant as it seems.
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The latest airline company to rejoice in the low price of fuel is British Airways owner IAG, which just announced a 64.4% jump in pre-tax profits to €1.8bn (£1.4bn) for 2015. A pre-existing fuel hedging strategy has stopped all of the benefits of lower prices being fully felt to date.
The results show Aer Lingus improved its adjusted operating margin by 2.9 points to 8.9 per cent.
It said revenue trends in the first quarter appear “broadly in line” with those experienced in the fourth quarter of 2015, when it made an operating profit of €540 million, excluding Aer Lingus.
Profits were helped by the falling price of oil and gas, which led to a 17.2 per cent reduction in fuel unit costs over the course of the year.
“These results are in line with our recent target and have exceeded our original 2015 operating profit target of €1.5bn that we set in 2011”, Mr Walsh said.
Aer Lingus has contributed €622 million in turnover since joining International Consolidated Airlines’ Group (IAG) in mid-August, equivalent to 3 per cent of overall revenues.
IAG, whose portfolio also includes Iberia, Vueling and Aer Lingus, will this year benefit from lower fuel prices, a long-term strategy of reducing costs and growing demand for travel.
“We’re reporting very strong full year results with an operating profit before exceptional items of €2,335 million including Aer Lingus”.
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A final dividend of 10 cents takes the full-year payout to 20 cents.
