The Dublin airport co-owned by self confessed “aviation fanatic” and billionaire co-founder of payments giants, Stripe, John Collison last year received a capital injection of €18.9 million to finance its expansion.
Mr Collison, who still regularly flies his own plane and piloted a four-seat, twin-engined aircraft from Europe to the United States back in 2017, acquired the airport in 2021 with a group of investors from the Galway builder Brian Connelly
New accounts filed by airport operator, Weston Aviation Academy Ltd, show that the new owners ploughed €18.9 million into the business last year, boosting the company’s share premium account to €30 million.
The airport straddles the Dublin-Kildare border, lying to the west of Lucan and south of Leixlip.
The Weston company recorded losses after tax of €3.57 million in the 12 months to the end of June last and this followed post tax losses of €2.96 million in the prior year.
A large part of the 2024 loss was accounted for by non-cash depreciation costs of €1.72 million.
Mr Collison’s father, Denis, sits on the board of the business where directors’ pay rose from €150,000 to €181,200.
Numbers employed by the company increased from 28 to 30 last year.
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The company continued to invest in the airport last year with the value of land and airfields, the terminal building complex and other assets increasing by €4.9 million. At the end of June last, the land and airfields had a book value of €10 million with the terminal complex having a book value of €8.58 million.
The company secured planning permission for an upgrade in terminal facilities at the airport in 2023 “to create a more coherent unified facility”.
Separate plans for a new hangar at Weston Airport to accommodate a Search and Rescue helicopter have been stalled by objectors’ appeals to An Bord Pleanála. However, the Search and Rescue base at the airport is on course to be operational from July 1st.
