Aer Lingus agrees further E200m debt facility with ISIF

Aer Lingus has agreed a new E200m debt facility with the State-backed lender Irish Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF). The three-year facility is the second agreed between the ISIF and the airline, and brings its total borrowings from the fund to E350m. Both tranches of funding have come from ISIF’s Pandemic Stabilisation and Recovery Fund, which was established during 2020 to support medium and large-scale enterprises operating in sectors materially impacted by the pandemic. The agreement is intended to support the airline as it tries to recover from Covid-19 restrictions curbs that have left it with losses of E700m. It is designed to complement ongoing support provided by Aer Lingus’s parent company, IAG, to the Irish airline. “The pandemic has had a very damaging impact on Aer Lingus’s business, causing operating losses of E347m in 2021 and E361m in 2020,” said Elizabeth Haun, the airline’s CFO. “The increase in the available facility from ISIF to E350m provides additional resilience and, together with the airline’s focus on improving our cost efficiency and competitiveness, it is an important element as we plan our recovery.”<br/>