The directors of the luggage handling firm that apologised for its role in the number of bags that went missing at Dublin Airport last July said staffing issues have been addressed for the upcoming summer season.
New accounts for Swissport Ireland Ltd show that it recorded pretax profits of €14.4 million in 2021, up from €291,000 in 2020, as the aviation sector began to recover from Covid-19 pandemic travel restrictions.
A chief factor behind the profit surge was the company receiving €8.38 million in State Covid-19 wage supports for 2021 compared to €2.62 million under that heading in 2020.
Accounts signed off on March 23rd show the company recorded the large hike in profits as revenues increased by 23 per cent from €26.4 million to €32.56 million in 2021.
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In response to the increase in air travel in 2021, numbers employed by the company rebounded, rising from 446 to 781 as wage costs, before the Covid-19 wage supports, totalled €15.5 million.
Severance and redundancy costs totalled €153,000 compared to €719,000 in 2020.
Swissport provides services to airlines operating from Dublin, Shannon and Cork airports. Last July, it issued an apology to Dublin Airport users, saying it was “very sorry for our part in the disruption people are experiencing”.
“We are working hard to address our resource challenges,” it said at the time. In the new accounts, directors noted that “there was a significant challenge in 2022 to recruit and train enough staff to meet the surge in demand and labour, although this has been addressed for the upcoming summer season”.
They said the latest industry intelligence is forecasting summer 2023 to be ahead of 2022.
The accounts show an operating profit of €6.19 million in 2021 followed an operating loss of €1.2 million in 2020.
The directors described this as “a very positive result, reflecting the strength, commitment, and professionalism of our management and all our employees”.
At the end of 2021, the company’s shareholder funds totalled €23.25 million while its cash funds tripled from €5.93 million to €18.1 million.
