Air Berlin blames ‘sluggish’ market for modest Q2 profits
Air Berlin has blamed the “sluggishness” of the airline market for its “modest” profits in the second quarter of this year.
“Although we did not meet all expectations, we still created a solid base for further growth,” said Joachim Hunold, chief executive officer.
He said the downturn in demand was due to the warm weather in Germany, particularly in April, and led to aggressive competition in the industry, and consequently to falling prices.
Charter flights, which account for 37% of turnover, were hit and this had a full knock-on effect on the company, as did the lack of last-minute bookings usually made by independent travellers.
Passenger numbers in the quarter increased by 11.8% to 5.98 million, but utilisation fell from 78.36% to 77.81%.
At the same time, seating capacity had increased by 12.4%.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amorti-sation were €104 million, almost matching last year’s figure of €104.3m.
A comparison of the figures for the half-year showed an increase of 26.2% from €86.8m to €109.5m, but earnings before interest and taxes fell by 47.4% from €44.7m to €23.5m.
The airline said it would be outlining a new strategy on September 20, which will see greater focus on business travel.
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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