Aer Lingus has reported operating profit of €142 million for the third quarter of 2026, down €28 million year on year.
During the first nine months of the year, operating profits at the International Airlines Group-owned airline have fallen by 57 per cent, down from €250 million to €108 million.
Aer Lingus chief executive Lynne Embleton said increased competition, particularly in the North Atlantic region, “has fundamentally changed our operating environment”.
She said to address these challenges, the airline must focus on “reducing our costs and improving efficiency and productivity”.
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The trading update from Aer Lingus said it has faced higher supplier and carbon costs and “significantly increased fuel costs” this year.
Aer Lingus said it expects to face these higher costs “through the airline’s upcoming seasonally weaker quarters and through 2027”.
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To counter the impacts of the elevated costs, Aer Lingus plans to implement “network and organisation design changes” to reduce costs, which are expected to lead to an improvement in its operating margin.
Aer Lingus has plans to reduce flying capacity by 6 per cent, a removal of lower-margin flying and proposed reductions of 500 roles.
Embleton said in a call with media on Friday morning that department-by-department talks over reducing the headcount are ongoing and could be concluded this year.
“It’s a big restructuring [of our head office]. We’re a long way down those conversations, which is at department-by-department level, and we’ve had expressions of interest for voluntary severance within that and we’re working through that process.
“I do hope that will be, if not done, largely done by the end of the year.”
Embleton said Aer Lingus has received “a lot of expressions of interest for voluntary redundancy” from cabin crew and “significant applications” from pilots since their own expression of interest procedure started a week ago.
She could not clarify how many expressions of interest the company has received in the redundancy programme.
The cost cutting measures are aimed at delivering an operating margin of 12 per cent to 15 per cent at the airline, which Embleton said is required to secure investment and support future growth.
“We must adapt as a business to a competitive environment that is here to stay regardless of any future changes to fuel costs. Achieving this is critical to avoiding any further reduction in our flying capacity.”
She added management, unions and staff must “work together constructively” to put the airline in a position to manage the new competitive environment.
“This is essential in order to achieve an operating margin which will give us the investment needed to grow in the interest of all of our stakeholders.”
On Thursday, almost 30 flights across Europe were affected by “hoax” bomb threats, including an Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Rome that was diverted to an airfield in northern France.
“It’s very difficult for our crew and our customers when an event like that happens,” Embleton said. “I think our crew behaved with impeccable professionalism. We are very proud of how they handled it.”
International Airlines Group (IAG) chief executive Luis Gallego added the airline industry was “suffering” as a result of these incidents.
“The only thing we can do is to follow the protocols,” Gallego said. “We don’t have any other alternative than to follow the procedures. It’s easy to disrupt the operation with all these threats, but we don’t have a way to discriminate if something is true or is not true.”
Further details in the trading update said Aer Lingus passenger numbers rose by 1.8 per cent in the third quarter of 2026, compared to the same period last year.
It added competitive market conditions and a weaker yield environment have “limited the airline’s ability to offset higher fuel and other operating costs”.
During the third quarter, the airline announced some initiatives to raise further revenue, which included provision of Starlink wifi on its services. Starlink is now provided on almost all long-haul Aer Lingus flights and will at a later date be provided on short-haul services.
The airline also said next year it would begin to retrofit 10 Airbus A330 aircraft cabins and introduce a premium economy choice for customers.
