Just doing my daily browse at the Icwales website and I came across this;
LOSS-MAKING Air Wales has recorded its highest-ever passenger numbers.
The airline, owned by successful Swansea-based property tycoon Roy Thomas, said it is now flying more passengers than at any other time in its six-year history.
Air Wales carried more than 31,000 passengers in July, 5,000 more than in June - and an increase of 145% on July last year.
Mr Thomas said many of the airline's services were now flying at full load, with strong advance bookings through its Swansea-based call centre.
The airline attributed the rise in passengers to the popularity of its new routes from Cardiff International Airport to Paris and Jersey - which it runs in partnership with low-cost airline BMIbaby.
As well as its expanding destination offer, Air Wales said its increasing passenger numbers were a result of improved customer service.
Chairman Mr Thomas said, "The latest passenger numbers are extremely encouraging and reflect the reliability and sustainability of Air Wales in a growing and competitive market.
"We are pleased with the development of our flagship routes including the success of our twice daily, long-awaited Paris service which is currently performing beyond all expectations.
"Over the past year, as well as launching a new portfolio of flights, we have finely tuned our customer service strategy to ensure we continue to deliver an outstanding service.
"The airline industry is a tough one to be in - delays and cancellations are often out of our control. However, despite that, Air Wales has achieved a time and cancellation record which is second to none with figures way above the industry average.
"This has been an outstanding year for Air Wales and we look forward with confidence to further strong growth over the coming months."
However, the company is operating in the red. Its latest full-year accounts submitted to Companies House (to March 31, 2004) reveal it incurred pre-tax losses of just more than £9m, compared to £4.48m in 2003.
In the accounts Air Wales, in which Mr Thomas has a 98.5% equity stake, said the losses were "due to the continuing high levels of start up costs associated with the development of new routes".
The directors of the airline, which employs about 100 people, said they were confident that the company's trading position would improve.
During the year directors provided additional loan funding of just more than £3m.
However, the accounts show that revenues during the year improved from £2.7m to £5.9m
Welsh aviation expert Martin Evans said, "We should be very grateful that a private individual [Roy Thomas] is prepared to provide funding for Wales to have its own airline.
"However, the time has now come for Air Wales to draw up a sustainable long-term business plan so that Roy doesn't have to keep funding the airline."
Air Wales' accounts to the end of March 2005, have yet to be filed with Companies House.
However a spokesman for the company yesterday said it "was not far off" moving into a profitable trading position. He also confirmed that the company was working on its next stage of expansion.
Air Wales flies to 11 destinations out of Cardiff - to Aberdeen, Belfast, Cork, Dublin, Glasgow Prestwick, Jersey, Liverpool, Newcastle, Norwich, Paris and Plymouth.
Looks like they are wanting to expand more..
Regards,
Chris