Hard times continue for the Irish flag carrier

Aer Lingus is cutting the volume of flights it operates out of Gatwick Airport, less than one year after opening a new base at the London gateway.

The number of aircraft Aer Lingus has based at Gatwick will fall from five to three by the end of March, reversing plans to grow its presence there throughout 2010.

Its reduced capacity means that the Irish flag carrier will only be able to operate four routes from the airport – Malaga, Dublin, Knock and a new link to Cork.

The announcement follows a difficult period for Aer Lingus, which posted losses of £110 million last year and has fought off repeated hostile takeover bids by Ryanair.

Despite seeing a nine per cent spike in passenger numbers during December, the carrier is forecasting only a “small” operating profit for the second half of 2009.

It blamed the downturn on “weak consumer demand and continuing challenges in the UK operating environment, which have impacted aviation sector performance generally”.

Aer Lingus began flying from Gatwick last April, opening seven connections including Knock, Faro, Nice, Malaga, Zurich, Vienna and Munich. It then pressed ahead with expansion plans in June, adding Bucharest, Eindhoven, Tenerife, Lanzarote, Warsaw and Vilnius to its route network.

Alongside the Gatwick cutbacks, Aer Lingus has also deferred delivery of two new Airbus A320 planes, pushing their arrival back by six months to spring 2011.

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