Flyglobespan, the low-cost airline set up six years ago by entrepreneur Tom Dalrymple, is on track to return to profit this year after a £13m loss in 2007.

The airline is also in talks about deals to lease surplus aircraft over the winter following a recent agreement to supply a plane to Oman Air for the next 12 months.

The airline suffered from disruption to its transatlantic services and fallout from the terrorist attack on Glasgow airport in 2007.

Dalrymple said problems with its transatlantic services alone had cost the company around £15m. “We would have turned in a profit had it not been for the hassles.”

Flyglobespan suffered technical problems with two aircraft it leased from Icelandair. Five of its planes were also grounded at Glasgow when the terrorist attack happened on its busiest day of the year.

However, Rick Green, chief executive of the parent company Globespan, said that with the peak summer season approaching, he was confident that the company would be on track this year.

“The market is challenging and we cannot say we are winning or we have won but we can look to future with optimism and confidence,” he said.

“On the strength of our achievements so far, we would return to profit this year.

“Our core business, which is Europe, is in rude health and on the Atlantic routes, the plan was to accept less demand this year with smaller capacity planes and less amount on sale.”

Green said they would be looking to build up services across the Atlantic with bigger planes in 2009. “With hindsight, I don’t think we expanded too quickly but we may have got the timing wrong,” he said.

Dalrymple said the company’s strong balance sheet had provided it with a good platform to take advantage of any opportunities in the next few years. He said merging with another airline was unlikely although he would like partnerships with other companies in the travel sector.

“We are having such a good time, we do get a lot of interest,” he said. “It would be a superb business for any of our competitors to acquire.

“Do we need anybody? We’d like to have association with products that suited us, like hotel chains, but it is difficult to believe a relationship with another carrier would do anything other than just absorb our time.”

Dalrymple also reiterated his view that BAA’s monopoly of the big Scottish airports had to end. BAA owns Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

“I think it has to be broken up. The risk of this operating as it is, is far, far too great,” he said. “It cannot and must not be allowed to continue. A 99% market share does not suggest competition. It can never compete with itself.”

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