feb 23 reuters  frances getlink getppa on thursday forecast record core earnings for this year after its new eleclink unit and strong traffic across the channel tunnel helped it post a nearly threefold annual increase in profit were seeing a good start to the year on the passenger side ceo yann leriche told reporters in a call adding however that the performance of freight is more reliant on the broader uk economy whose growth may be flat this year getlink nonetheless expects a record annual core profit ebitda this year of more than 910 millions euros against the 886 million posted for 2022 and 297 million in 2021 while staff shortages and strikes last year disrupted europes airports forcing airlines to cancel thousands of flights the easing of covid19 restrictions boosted traffic across getlinks channel tunnel if airports are disrupted it could help us leriche said adding that more clients are telling us they dont want to take a flight  for the francebritain trip  given the carbon footprint getlinks eleclink unit an underwater cable enabling electricity exchange between france and the uk contributed 264 million euros in core profit since launching amid energy shortages in france last year that figure comes after a provision of 142 million linked to a regulation from the european commission to split some of eleclinks profits with the uks national grid and frances rte leriche said that for freight trucks the group introduced a pricing surcharge tied to the price of energy while getlink in a statement added it plans to spend around 160 million euros this year on capital expenditures to improve the eurotunnel separately the ceo of frances eiffage fougpa the french construction group which owns a nearly 19 stake in getlink on wednesday said eiffage would be open to raise its stake though potentially crossing a threshold of 2530 would depend on the share price