Aer Lingus issues Interim Management Statement
Aer Lingus issued an interim management statement today covering the company's Q3 performance from July 1 to September 30 last. The following are the main points outlined in the briefing, all figures expressed as year on year :
- Revenue fell 9.7% for the Quarter
- Network passenger numbers grew 7% to 3.08m
- Short haul passenger numbers grew 10% against a capacity growth of 10.5%
- Long haul passenger numbers fell 13.2% against a capacity reduction of 18%
Looking at load factor and passenger revenue :
- Average passenger revenue fell 14.8%
- Average short haul passenger fares fell 12.3% with long haul dropping 17%
- Network load factor grew 1.4% to 80.% broken down as :
- Short haul up 1.4% to 80.4%
- Long haul up 0.6% to 77.8%
The company's cash pot stood at €399.9m at the end of September, down 38.8% on December's figure of €653.9m. €107m of the difference is accounted for in restructuring costs and final payments for two A330 aircraft.
The company's Transformation Plan is currently being discussed with employees and unions, a process which the airline expects to conclude around November 18. As part of the plan a further A330 aircraft will be removed from service in the coming weeks to leave the winter long haul strength at 5 units with summer 2010 at 6. As part of the airline's continuing policy of reviewing its needs Aer Lingus says that it issued an RFI for Sale or Sale and Leaseback on October 7 last. Considerable interest has been received and the company says that it will look at aircraft disposal should there not be the demand or cost base to operate them.
In its outlook Aer Lingus reckons that the measures taken to date to reduce capacity have helped to stabilise load factors and yields. Whilst it sees that the rate at which fares have been falling has been arrested it does see fares continuing to fall in the short term.