The French owner of Belfast International Airport took a £38 million dividend out of the business in 2023, new accounts filed with Companies House reveal.
The disclosure came as Vinci Airports recorded its most profitable year to date since buying the Co Antrim asset in 2018.
Belfast International recorded a pre-tax profit of £9.5 million for the year ending December 31 2023, a 155% increase on its 2022 performance.
That was the airport’s biggest annual profit since the ‘boom’ years of 2007 and 2008.
Turnover rose by 35% year-on-year to £54.8m in 2023, exceeding pre-pandemic levels.
The latest accounts for Belfast International Airport Ltd show the £38m dividend was paid to a Watford-registered holding company Airports Worldwide UK Holding Ltd.
The holding company, which values its airport investment in Northern Ireland at £87.2m, is ultimately owned by Paris-based infrastructure giant Vinci SA.
Vinci last year announced plans to invest £100m over five-years in the Aldergrove terminal.
The latest accounts for the airport show it refinanced its borrowings on September 29 2023, securing a new £70m commercial loan facility and a new £30m institutional term loan facility.
Vinci announced the £100m investment programme just two weeks later.
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The upgrades include a new £25m security hall, which is at an advanced stage.
The development was deemed necessary to support the weight of six new 3D scanners acquired for the terminal to meet the UK Government’s directive for all airports to install new security technology.
The CT scanners were due to be operational at Belfast International in June 2024, but the roll-out was delayed until recent weeks.
The same 3D scanning technology is now live at Belfast City Airport following a £3m investment.
The CT scanners mean liquids under 100ml no longer have to be placed in plastic bags and can stay inside hand luggage when passing through security.
The stringent rules around liquids in hold bags were originally introduced in 2006 following a foiled terror plot to blow up planes flying from London to the US with homemade liquid bombs.
Belfast International Airport’s soaring fortunes in 2023 came in a year when 5.96 million passengers passed through the Aldergrove terminal, just shy of the airport’s pre-pandemic peak of 6.28 million.
It followed the return of Ryanair and anchor airline EasyJet’s decision to ramp up its operation at the airport.
In commentary published alongside its latest annual accounts, the airport’s directors said passenger numbers are expected to increase by another 315,000 in 2024, exceeding 2019 levels by 5% to hit a new record high of 6.6 million.
This year also saw a change in leadership at Belfast International, with Graham Keddie announcing his retirement as managing director to staff with immediate effect on March 8 2024.
Companies House filings show Mr Keddie resigned as a director the same day.
According to Companies House, the airport’s former chief financial officer, Dan Owens, resigned as a director of Belfast International Airport Limited the previous week.
He was subsequently reappointed on March 8, and now heads the airport as its chief executive.
