Airport co-owned by aviation fanatic John Collison receives €18.9m capital injection
Gordon Deegan
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.
In 2021, John Collision and a group of investors acquired Weston Airport from the Galway builder Brian Connelly.
Now, new accounts filed by airport operator, Weston Aviation Academy Ltd, show that the new owners ploughed €18.9 million into the business last year.
The €18.9 million capital injection brings the company’s share premium account from €11 million to €30 million.
The airport site straddles the Dublin-Kildare border and lies to the west of Lucan and south of Leixlip.
The Weston company recorded post tax losses of €3.575 million in the 12 months to the end of June last and this followed post tax losses of €2.96 million in the year prior.
A large part of the 2024 loss was €1.72 million in non-cash depreciation costs.
John Collison’s father, Denis, sits on the board and in 2017, John Collison piloted a four-seat, twin-engine aircraft from Europe to the United States and today still regularly flies his own plane.
Numbers employed by the company increased from 28 to 30 last year. Directors’ pay rose from €150,000 to €181,200.
The company continued to invest in the airport last year as the value of land and airfields, terminal building complex and other assets increased by €4.9 million.
The spend on airport facilities followed the company securing planning permission for an upgrade in terminal facilities at the airport in 2023.
A planning report lodged with the application by Tom Phillips + Associates, Bernard Dwyer stated that the proposed upgrades “are being sought to create a more coherent unified facility with improved linkages between the various buildings”.
At the end of June last, the ‘land and airfields’ had a book value of €10 million and the 'terminal complex' had a book value of €8.58 million.
Weston Airport is set to expand further with the establishment of a new Search and Rescue (SAR) base which is expected to commence in July of this year.
Plans for a helicopter hangar that forms part of the base is currently before An Bord Pleanála following third party appeals lodged by objectors.
The capital injection last year resulted in shareholder funds rising from €3.6 million to €19 million.
