AER LINGUS HAS reported an operating profit of €90.9 million for the three months to the end of September.

The Irish airline said that a two per cent rise in passenger numbers and an increase in the amount it made per customer helped boost profits for the year to €86.5 million, 29.7 per cent ahead of the previous year. It previously reported an operating loss of €4.4m for the first half of 2012.

“The positive Q3 2012 result reflects the on-going success of our strategy to manage capacity deployment across the network, concentrating on serving higher yielding, time sensitive demand and continuing to focus on cost reduction” said Christoph Mueller, Aer Lingus’ CEO.

“I am particularly proud that our team has achieved this result against the backdrop of the third Ryanair offer for the Group.”

The overall yield per passenger increased by 7.2 per cent, with the amount made per passenger on long haul flights particularly strong at 11.5 per cent.

Forward bookings at the end of Q3 were stronger than in the same period last year, he said, meaning an additional aircraft is required to serve the airline’s long haul route on the North Atlantic. An Airbus A330 was returning to the fleet from an extended codeshare with United Airlines to serve the extra demand.

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