Article from BTNews 14 NOVEMBER 2016
Carrier results
Flybe, Britain’s third largest scheduled services airline, announced its quarterly results last Wednesday (9 November).
The fact that it coincided with the US presidential elections finale was probably not a deliberate effort to bury bad news. No new CEO was announced (See BTN 7 November). Friday’s share close price was improved to 43p.
The current forward-booking profile for Q3 2016/17 shows seat capacity up by 16% and 49% of seats sold, vs 52% at the same time last year. For the quarter, the yield was down 5% and passenger seat revenue also reduced by 9%. Adjusted profit before tax for the quarter was £15.9m (2015 – £21.1m), said to reflect the impact of challenging external market conditions. Profit before tax of £7m (2015 – £22.9m) was affected by the fall in sterling, increasing the cost of US$ loans on aircraft. Cash to hand is £141.7m.
Ryanair and Wizz also published figures last week, with the Irish airline reporting a 7% increase in post-tax profits to €1.17bn over the half-year. Shares are near their all-time high at around 1400p.
At Wizz, underlying profit after tax rose 12.5% in the first half to €231.6m. While the shares at 1600p are some way off the peak price of 2000p, they are still well above the April 2015 issue figure of 1269p.
easyJet full year are on Tuesday (15 November).
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