Translift takes off with right aircraft at the right time

TRANSLIFT Airways made a pre tax profit of £2.5 million on a turn over of £50 million last year. The airline carried 850,000 passengers in 1995 and this year it plans to carry 1.1 million. A $24 million (£15 million) contract has been signed with Turkish Airlines and SunExpress for flights between Turkey and Germany this year.

After a shaky start, the airline has thrived in the last two years and prospects are good for 1996, according to the chairman and chief executive, Mr P. J. McGoldrick.

"We have the right aircraft at the right time," Mr McGoldrick said. Translift operates five state of the art Airbus A320 jets and two A300s. An expansion of the fleet in 1997 is under consideration. Translift leases the planes with an option to purchase them later.

Translift's main customers in Ireland are tour operators. It flies, to most sun destinations for Falcon Holidays. It also flies Irish, pilgrims to Lourdes for JWT and Spanish students to Ireland. "Translift's inbound traffic to Ireland is expected to double this year.

Translift employs 300 people in the summer and 150 in winter. Though largely Irish owned and staffed, most of the airline's business is not Irish related.

"The Irish market is too small to be economic. So we operate as a European carrier, using the freedoms the EU now allows," Mr McGoldrick said. Besides operating planes for Turkish Airlines, Translift also flies into Antalia, Turkey, on behalf of Sun Express, a subsidiary of Lufthansa.

This business is growing last year Translift had one plane flying between Germany and Turkey. This year it has four planes flying the route.

During the summer, Translift flies European holidaymakers to the sun. In winter its aircraft go to America and Canada, to an" associated airline called Transmeridian.

There are now four Translift planes in the US, flying from Chicago and Detroit to Cancun in Mexico and the Carribean. Translift is a partner in Transmeridian, along with Apple Vacations, the largest tour operator in the US.

Translift's capacity is almost totally committed for 1996. There is no capacity left on the A320s, though there is some on the A300s. The contracts and rates have been agreed and Translift's main concern now will be to keep a rein on costs.

At $47 million for an Airbus A320, monthly financing costs are enormous and the planes must be kept constantly occupied.

Further expansion of Translift is likely to come in associated business areas. For instance, a subsidiary, Translift Leisure, will sell 5,000 tickets this year for flights out of Ireland to the US, on behalf of American Trans Air (ATA), the largest charter carrier in the US. ATA has been carrying passengers between Ireland and the US for the past nine years.

This summer, ATA will operate Lockheed L-1011 wide-bodied aircraft, plus Boeing 757 planes. ATA is the tenth largest airline in the US, carrying over four million customers a year and employing over four thousand staff. Another Translift subsidiary does something similar in Belfast.

Deals have also been done this year with SobleAir, Viajes United Irish Pilgrimage Inghams Travel, Clipper International, Ryanair, Joe Walsh Tours and others.

Mr McGoldrick has a majority of the shares in the airline. The British venture capital company 3i is a minority shareholder in Translift, as is Gresham Bank.

Translift's toughest period happened after it bought DC8 planes for freight and passenger traffic. Freight went into the doldrums around 1992. The planes had been leased for 10, years but it was decided to negotiate a return of the planes early. Translift switched direction and the freight side of the business ended.

It took delivery of the Airbus passenger jets in 1992/93 and the years since have been profitable. Translift aims to attract more blue chip clients, such as Lufthansa, "who are prepared to pay good rates and honour their commitment to us".

Subcontractual work has been carried out for British Caledonian, Condor Aviation, Air Sweden, Air Inter, Air Belgium, British Airways an Air France.

Mr McGoldrick flew with the Air Corps before working as pilot with Transmeridian. He later worked for the Cunard company and he set up Heavylift Cargo Airlines.

More recently, he worked for a subsidiary of GPA, before joining Ryanair as chief executive in 1989. He set up Translift Airways in 1991, initially as a cargo airline, though it quickly progressed to become a passenger airline as well.