Friday, 21 Apr 2023
Updated / Friday, 21 Apr 2023 14:26
Kenny Jacobs, the daa's CEO, said 2022 was a challenging year for
everyone in the aviation sector
The daa group, which operates Dublin and Cork airports, said it
returned to profit last year as air passenger numbers rebounded after
Covid-19 travel restrictions were lifted.
Daa recorded a profit before exceptional items of €98m in 2022,
compared to a loss of €101m in the 2021, while turnover for the year
jumped by 132% to €752m from €324m in 2021.
It said its cumulative group losses during Covid-19 in 2020 and 2021
hit €387m.
Passenger numbers at Dublin and Cork airports came to 30.3 million in
the 12 months to December 2022 compared to 8.7 million passengers in
the previous 12-month period. This marked an 85% recovery of passenger
numbers in 2019.
Today's figures show that Dublin Airport - the country's biggest
airport - facilitated more than 28.1 million passengers last year,
representing a 231% increase on 2021 activity and an 85% recovery of
2019 levels.
Cork Airport, the state's second biggest airport, saw a total of 2.24
million passengers, a 766% increase on 2021 and 86% of 2019 passenger
numbers.
Daa also operates the Aer Rianta International (ARI) and daa
International (daaI) businesses. It has operations in 15 countries and
invested €158m in capital expenditure last year.
The daa Board has decided not to pay a dividend for 2022 and said it
also has concerns in relation to its ability to pay a dividend over the
next number of years.
"This is in the context of the significant impact of Covid-19 on the
group, the poor commercial outcome arising from the recent Commission
for Aviation Regulation (CAR) determination and the scale of capital
expenditure that will be required to address the critical capacity
challenges that Dublin Airport faces," the company's Chief Financial
Officer Catherine Gubbins said.
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Kenny Jacobs, daa's chief executive, said that 2022 was a challenging
year for everyone in the global aviation sector due to the sudden surge
in demand for international travel following the easing of Covid-19
restrictions.
"As has been well documented, there were a number of key shortcomings
with respect to the standards and service quality at Dublin Airport
during the first half of 2022 but we recovered well and have enjoyed
nine months of stability since," Kenny Jacobs said.
"The hard work and commitment of the daa team has ensured that since
August 2022, around 90% of our passengers have passed through security
screening in under 20 minutes," he added.
Daa recruited over 1,000 new employees during the year as it managed a
"remarkably" busy summer season, and returned to a normal level of
customer service for the Christmas and New Year period.
Kenny Jacobs said this strong passenger performance has continued into
2023.
Terminal 2 at Dublin Airport
"As we look ahead to the busy summer, our full focus is on ensuring the
operation at Dublin Airport is appropriately resourced, while our
recently announced 15-point improvement plan will bring better
standards for all of our customers," he said.
"At Cork Airport, the country's second biggest airport, passenger
numbers continue to grow and are now consistently above 2019 levels on
a monthly basis," he added.
Mr Jacobs also said today that the Irish labour market remains
incredibly competitive, meaning the attraction and retention of top
talent is a constant challenge.
Speaking to RTÉ News Mr Jacobs said there certainly won't be any repeat
of the chaos seen at Dublin Airport last summer during this summer
season.
Around 750 of the estimated 811 security personnel needed for the
summer have now been recruited and the daa boss predicted that the rest
would be in place by the start of June.
"There certainly won't be a repeat of the scenes last summer, and
that's good testament to the work that was done by the team," he said.
He also predicted that car parking will not be a problem at the airport
this summer as daa hopes to have the old QuickPark car park, which it
is in the process of buying, operational - resulting in the provision
of an extra 6,000 spaces.
The proposed purchase is currently with the Competition and Consumer
Protection Commission.
The CEO said Dublin Airport's new anti-drone system should be
operational in around three weeks.
"We got that kit, we got trained on the kit, then the new regulatory
requirements from both IAA from a safety point of view and Comreg from
a radio frequency point of view," he said.
"So we are working through those regulatory requirements with both IAA
and Comreg."
"I'd say we're about three weeks away from ticking all the boxes and
then being able to deploy the kits in the event that we did have a
drone come into the perimeter."
Mr Jacobs defended the daa decision not to pay a dividend, despite the
company making a profit for the period.
He pointed out that the organisation has gross debt of €1.6bn and net
debt of €840m.
"So we have got to service that debt in the coming years and our
revenue has been hamstrung by a regulated charge that we think is too
low," he said.
"So I think it's both things. It's us saying that you know it's
challenging to pay a dividend and deliver service if we're being hit
with a regulated charge which impacts our aeronautical revenues going
backwards."
Regarding action the airport operator is taking to address noise
arising from the opening of the new northerly runway, Mr Jacobs said
the company is actively continuing to engage with community.
He said around 200 homes have been insulated and more will probably be
insulated between now and the end of the year.
"We'll insulate more houses if we need to and then that hopefully
satisfies everybody and then we're able to ramp up the number of
movements that we have on the north runway," he stated.
In relation to daa’s recent decision to turn down an invitation to
attend a hearing of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport to
discuss whistleblower claims about security at Dublin airport, Mr
Jacobs said it he would attend the committee when "things are less
busy".
"I don't have any objection to go into the JOC, I was there in
January," he said.
"We're in the summer peak. If I went there, I'd be happy to talk about
our summer readiness plan."
"I wouldn't be commenting on any whistleblower claims because they're
under investigation and it would be inappropriate and I wouldn't be
commenting on security because it's also a sensitive topic."
"So that was why I decided not to go. I will be there and I'll be there
at the next possible time to do it."
Chairman Basil Geoghegan said a key highlight for daa last year was the
opening of the new North Runway at Dublin Airport - on time and on
budget.
"The new runway is a vital economic enabler for Irish tourism, trade
and foreign direct investment and we were enormously proud of everyone
who helped deliver this remarkable feat of aviation engineering, which
will serve Ireland for generations to come," Mr Geoghegan said.
During the year, ARI won a contract to operate duty-free and duty-paid
retail concessions at eight airports in Portugal, while daa
International was awarded a five-year contract at King Abdulaziz
International Airport in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
The daa team also won a 12-year operations and maintenance contract to
become the operator of the new international airport being constructed
at the Red Sea Resort in Saudi Arabia.
State dividend
Speaking to reporters at the Bloomberg New Economy Gateway Conference
in Wicklow, the Minister for Finance Michael McGrath was asked about
the daa's decision not to pay a dividend to the state, despite making a
profit.
He said the Government was very much aware of the issue and that there
had been direct discussions on the matter involving the Minister for
Transport Eamon Ryan and the Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal
Donohoe.
"There are certainly costs and reinvestment requirements that the daa
have and my understanding is that they have come to an agreement as to
what is an appropriate dividend policy given the funding requirements
the daa have," Mr McGrath said.