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Despite high fuel prices and low economic growth, the Aviation Industry has recorded a slightly improved performance during the last semester of 2012. As per IATA, for 2012, airlines are expected to return profits of USD 6.7 billion (up from the USD 4.1 billion forecast in October 2012) which represent a margin of 1%. During 2012, many airlines have been restructuring and consolidating and this is starting to have a positive impact on the business.
For the quarter ended 31 December 2012, the Group and the Company have recorded profits of Eur 6.4 million and Eur 6.1 million respectively as compared to losses of Eur 3.2 million and Eur 3.6 million for the comparative period of last year.
During the quarter, the Company pursued its 7 Step Recovery Plan which saw further realignment of the network with market demand. Additional frequencies were added on Johannesburg, Cape Town, Nairobi, Antananarivo and Kuala Lumpur routes. As a result of the suspension of flights to Milan, Geneva and Frankfurt, the overall number of passengers carried fell by 3%. The operating revenue decreased by 4.2% from Eur 128.8 million to Eur 123.4 million but the operating cost witnessed a larger decrease of 8.9% from Eur 123.3 million to Eur 112.2 million.
The realigned network saw an improvement to passenger load factor from 79.8% to 80.7%.
Total Shareholders’ Funds for the Company decreased from Eur 83.7 million as at 31 March 2012 to Eur 80.3 million as at 31 December 2012. The resulting net assets per share as at 31 December 2012 is Eur 0.78 as compared to Eur 0.82 as at 31 March 2012.
The profit recorded in the third quarter further reduced the Group and the Company losses for the nine months ended 31 December 2012 to Eur 2.6 million and Eur 3.1 million respectively. For the corresponding period last year, the Group and the Company had recorded losses of Eur 22.6 million and Eur 22.2 million respectively.
Though the number of passengers carried went down slightly by 0.9% to 969,488 as compared to 978,702 during the nine months ended 31 December 2011, the operating revenue of the company increased by Eur 5.5 million (+ 1.6%) to reach Eur 340.4 million. On the other hand, operating expenses decreased by Eur 4.8 million with fuel cost witnessing a net decrease of Eur 4.3 million (-3.1%) against the corresponding period of last year. Seat capacity slightly increased from 1,360,640 to 1,372,383 whilst passenger load factor improved from 77.7% to 79.0%.
Abridged Statements
The gradual implementation of the 7 Step Recovery Plan is impacting positively on the performance of the company. However, high fuel prices and the volatile EUR/USD exchange rate will remain a major challenge for the company.
