News
2014: A busy year for Aviation in Ireland
Thursday 15th January 2015
It was an incredibly busy 2014 on the aviation front, both domestically and internationally. The next 12 months promise more of the same.
In Ireland this year, Ryanair placed a record order with Boeing for up to 200 aircraft as it targets carrying 150 million passengers a year by 2024. That's compared to the just over 90 million it expects to carry in the financial year than ends next March.
Ryanair also saw the departure during the year of two of Michael O'Leary's key lieutenants: Michael Cawley and Howard Millar, although both are remaining as non-executive directors. Mr O'Leary signed up for another five years as chief executive.
And if there wasn't enough already going on at Aer Lingus, with industrial action earlier this year, political upset over why chief executive Christoph Mueller was getting paid so well for putting the airline in a strong financial and operational position, along comes former CEO Willie Walsh with an offer to buy it for over €1bn.
Whether IAG, which owns British Airways, Iberia and Vueling, can pull it off remains to be seen.
Mr Mueller, meanwhile, will be leaving Aer Lingus - probably by March - to take up a new job as chief executive of Malaysia Airlines.
CityJet completed its separation from Air France-KLM, with the airline being bought by Germany's Intro Aviation. CityJet chief executive Christine Ourmieres also took a stake in the buyout and remains confident the airline can generate profits.
On the aircraft leasing front, Dublin-based SMBC Aviation Capital, headed by Peter Barrett, ordered 115 Airbus jets worth .5bn (€9.4bn) at list prices.
Irish aircraft leasing firms announced orders for more than bn (€36bn) worth of jets while at the Farnborough airshow outside London during the summer.
Avolon, which was co-founded by Domhnal Slattery and John Higgins, placed orders worth a total of .6bn with Airbus and Boeing. It also floated on the New York Stock Exchange in December - the biggest ever US flotation by an Ireland-founded firm.
AerCap, which is headquartered in Amsterdam but has an operation in Shannon, sealed its bn (€4bn) takeover of AIG's leasing arm ILFC. AerCap is headed by chief executive Aengus Kelly.
Ireland's airports also fared well in 2014.
Dublin Airport will have handled more than 20 million passengers in 2014, marking its busiest year since 2008.
A raft of new services will commence in 2015, while Dublin continues to increase its attractiveness as a connecting hub for passengers travelling from the UK and further afield to the United States.
Shannon Airport, now an independent entity, also had a strong 2014 as did Knock Airport.
Source: Irish Independent