Aer Lingus has reported a 30 per cent rise in full-year operating profit and vowed to push ahead with cost-cutting to drive down fares and compete in an increasingly tough market.
The airline reported an operating profit of €83 million in the year to end-December - ahead of its own €75 million target.
Passenger numbers rose 6.2 per cent to 6.6 million in 2003, with the load factor - which measures the proportion of seats filled - up three points to 81 per cent.
Traffic on European routes increased by 3.9 per cent compared to 2002.
Included in this was a reduction in 2003 of 4.8 per cent fall on the London routes owing to reduced capacity as Aer Lingus switched to a single model fleet.
Traffic on the continental European network was 27.6 per cent ahead of 2002, following the introduction of six new routes in 2003.
The average fare in Europe has been reduced by 20 per cent from €103.10 in 2001 to €82.52 in 2003.
Transatlantic traffic increased by 19.4 per cent to 1.1 million passengers in 2003, quite an achievement in the context of the war in Iraq.
The ongoing reduction in demand for business and first class which has fallen from 13 per cent in 2001 to 7 per cent in 2003 reduced average yields. As a result total passenger revenue was 4.6 per cent lower in 2003 than in 2002.
Turnover on continuing operations fell 7.3 per cent to €888.3 million, reflecting the airline's drive to cut fares since it almost faced bankruptcy in 2001.