Birmingham Airport, in which Aer Rianta has a stake, yesterday announced pre-tax profits of £20.3 million sterling on turnover of £77.7 million for the year to the end of March. The airport said these were the first accounting period of the restructured company and reflected a recordbreaking 6.16 million passenger trips.

Aer Rianta, along with its joint venture partner NatWest, owns 40 per cent of the airport.

In a statement, the company said non-aeronautical income generally grew at a higher rate than passenger growth, except for dutyfree sales. "With such matters as duty free abolition, low cost carriers, EU aviation directives, airline alliances, the strong pound and many more creating uncertainty, forecasting is difficult," said Mr Brian Summers, Birmingham's managing director.

"However, we remain absolutely committed to our market objective of meeting a higher proportion of regional air travel demand, and to do so with cost effective facilities which are easy to use and convenient to access."

In March, 1997, the company was restructured into a public-private partnership, with regional government agencies reducing their holding from 100 per cent to 49 per cent. The remaining 51 per cent is held by Aer Rianta and NatWest Partners, National Car Parks, John Laing Holdings and its own employees.