Reaping the benefits of a rapid recovery

In the weeks after the World Trade Center attacks in September 2001, the aviation industry widely expected Aer Lingus to fold.

Even before the atrocity, the State airline was struggling. Its European market was under siege from a growing number of low-cost carriers, led by domestic rival Ryanair, and corporate travel between here and the US was falling.

The transatlantic business accounted for more than 50 per cent of its profits, with business and premium class travellers contributing around 60 per cent of that. This was already eroding before September 2001. After the atrocities, it evaporated.

In the last quarter of that year, Aer Lingus was barely filling 40 per cent of its seats, and those it was selling were largely on board the least profitable, short-haul flights. It sold 71 per cent of its seats for the year as a whole.

Burning through around €25 million a day, the airline found its credit facilities withdrawn and the wise money in the industry was betting on insolvency.

That was the scenario facing former pilot Mr Willie Walsh when he took over the top job in October 2001 - stepping into an office that had been vacant for some time following the controversial exit of Mr Michael Foley earlier that year.

Over the next month, he and the two colleagues who are now joining him in a management buy-out (MBO) bid, chief operations officer Mr Seamus Kearney and chief financial officer Mr Brian Dunne, drew up a plan to rescue the company.

It targeted savings of €190 million a year. The executive team slashed capacity by 17 per cent and deferred orders for new aircraft. The toughest part involved job cuts. Aer Lingus reduced its headcount by close to 2,000, around one in every three workers. This included letting go about 80 pilots. A bitter dispute with their trade union, IMPACT, led to a strike and the cancellation of more than 360 flights in May 2002.

Remaining staff agreed to a pay freeze and to radically changed working practices.

Mr Walsh and his colleagues cut back wherever they could. They slashed airline ticket commissions to travel agents to 5 per cent from 9 per cent.

The 2001 results, published in August 2002, made for grim reading. Aer Lingus had a pre-tax loss of €140 million on €1.1 billion in sales and generated cash of €66 million. But there were some positive signs. Air travel lost €52 million on day-to-day activities, but this was €27 million better than the losses predicted.

At the same time, transatlantic business was growing, largely thanks to a cut in fares and an increase in the number cheap tickets available. Mr Walsh repositioned Aer Lingus as a "low-cost" carrier, cut fares and developed online sales.

Last year, Aer Lingus sold one in every two tickets over the internet, compared with just 8 per cent in 2001. In 2003, almost 6.6 million flew with the national airline, compared with 6.3 million in 2001 and 6.2 million in 2002. Last year, it filled 81 per cent of its seats, and made a profit of €69.2 million on a turnover of €888.3 million.

This year, instead of writing it off, the aviation industry is giving Aer Lingus awards for proving that it was wrong three years ago.