Bus group Aircoach has returned to the black with annual pretax profits of €445,554 on the back of strong revenue and margin growth on its coach services at Dublin airport.
Accounts soon to be filed in the Companies Office show that the turnaround in the 12 months to March 2006 reversed pretax losses of €583,745 in the previous trading year. The business is run by a company called Last Passive, which is controlled by British coach operator Firstgroup.
Aircoach saw its revenues rise 30 per cent to €12.6 million in the most recent period. "This growth can be attributed to increased sales on the core coach services to and from Dublin airport," the accounts state.
"The company also benefited from an increase in the level of contracted bus operations."
Aircoach was established in 1998 by businessman John O'Sullivan, a former Bus Éireann engineer. Mr O'Sullivan stayed on with Aircoach when Firstgroup acquired the business for some €15 million in 2003, but left the organisation in 2005. He now runs Quick Park, a car park near the airport.
Firstgroup acquired Aircoach in anticipation of moves to liberalise the bus market generally, but liberalisation all but fell off the agenda after Taoiseach Bertie Ahern moved the then minister for transport, Séamus Brennan, to the Department of Social and Family Affairs in 2004.
The Last Passive accounts allude to the lack of progress, but make no direct reference to it.
"The company remains ideally placed to benefit from the planned liberalisation of public transport markets in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland," the new filing says.
In spite of the slow pace of liberalisation, the bus sector continues to attract international interest.
French multinational Veolia Transport, which runs the Luas light rail system, moved last November to acquire Nestor Bus, the Co Galway firm that was among the first to challenge the monopoly of State company Bus Éireann over regional bus routes.
The Aircoach accounts say the company will be "aggressively exploring all opportunities to develop its intercity scheduled service business and contract bus operations during the year".
The company's coach routes link the airport with Dublin's southern suburbs.
The company also runs services linking Cork and Dublin and Dublin airport with Dundalk and Belfast.
