Skipness One Echo, I would hasten to add aircraft numbers have nothing to do with it. Aer Lingus possibly have more seats at any one time compared to BE as 320s 330s 321s & 319s in that order have a lot more seats when compared to the collective fleet of Q400s and EMB. In addition, EI is robust in terms of cost when compared to many airlines, they have survived what can only be described as most intensive competition from Ryanair or any airlines. So that's not a bad achievement by any standard in my book.
Mart901 is correct, EI profitable with good annual results in last couple of year against a backdrop of intense financial diffs in the Republic. BE has had significant challenges in the last year what with slump in domestic bookings in GB and the focus and investment in bring the nordic operation into the airline. The new pricing model etc is a step in their plan to improve the complete operation by the sounds of it.