The chairman of Aer Rianta, Mr Noel Hanlon, will be disappointed that the final results for the group, as it braces itself for the Government's break-up plan, reveal a sharp fall in profits.
The company last year suffered from poorer profitability in its hotel subsidiaries and in its overseas operations while the extra throughput at its airports, particularly Dublin, did not manifest extra profits. This, the company is quick to point out, is due to "aggressive capping" of landing charges.
Few things are as controversial in Irish aviation as landing charges. Aer Rianta insists that the Commission for Aviation Regulation keeps them unrealistically low while airlines such as Ryanair argue that they are too high. Ryanair's Mr Michael O'Leary is undoubtedly correct when he says that low-cost airlines must be offered low charges if they are to be enticed.
Mr Hanlon deserves credit for his stewardship of a company which has not always had an easy time with its political masters. It seems likely that it will have to write off €7 million spent on developing a pier, the construction of which was ordered by the government which then changed its mind and rendered it redundant.
Aer Rianta is not without its critics. Which monopoly would be? There is a huge imbalance between the growth of passenger numbers at Dublin in comparison with that being experienced at Cork and Shannon. Shannon's cost base is significantly higher than can be justified. There has been only limited success in attracting the low-cost airlines, aviation's fastest-growing sector. The improvement in facilities at Dublin Airport were late in coming and will soon be inadequate. The Great Southern Hotels subsidiary was never a good fit.
The Government says that the answer to the company's problems is to break it up into three autonomous airport companies actively competing with each other. Competition, it argues, will generate more passengers and thus more jobs. Well, it might but there is no certainty that it will. The Department of Transport's own consultants, PwC, have not made the case, while consultants hired by SIPTU and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions say they can provide "no comfort" to employees that the break-up would successfully address the challenges.
The principal challenge facing the three airports is to develop and facilitate growth in passenger traffic. But, if the break-up proceeds as planned, Dublin Airport would be saddled with enormous debt and may need a substantial increase in landing charges to fund improvements - the exact opposite of what is needed to attract more airlines. Shannon and Cork, neither of which are financially strong, would be cut adrift and made to do without government funding or guarantees. Aer Rianta has come a long way since its foundation in 1937 "to operate lines of aerial conveyances". It is now at a critical point in its history. The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, needs to demonstrate to Aer Rianta's staff and customers that there is a solid commercial case for the break-up.