Irish airline records operating profit decrease

Irish national airline Aer Lingus on Monday reported an operating profit of 61.1 million euros (84 million U.S. dollars) for 2013, down 11.6 percent from 69 million euros reported the previous year. The Irish airline said average fare revenue per seat was up 2 percent to 90.43 euros. Its long haul routes performed especially well last year with revenue up over 11 percent and passenger numbers up over 12 percent. But short haul revenue was down 3.3 percent due to good weather in Ireland and Northern Europe last summer as well as more competitive pricing. Aer Lingus said its board is proposing to pay a dividend of four cent per share for 2013. Aer Lingus shares were over 2 percent lower in Dublin trade early Monday. Christoph Mueller, the airline's chief executive, said 2013 was the first year of significant growth for Aer Lingus since the global economic downturn. "We added 11.6 percent additional capacity to our mainline long haul network and more than sold this," he said. "While we faced challenges in short haul markets in the second half of the year, we took effective corrective action to protect margin and in this way delivered a creditable profit," he added.