Full year Dart Group results issued today. Full text available
http://mwprices.ft.com/custom/ft2-co...b7ee0a54264%7D
Picked out some bits of interest though
Profit before tax, goodwill amortisation and exceptional items amounted to
#16.6m (2006 - #14.5m restated). Profit before tax and after goodwill
amortisation and exceptional items amounted to #18.1m (2006 - #14.8m restated).
The company believes that The Canary Islands, which have formerly mainly been served by charter flights, will become an increasingly popular scheduled service destination, ideally suited to the performance of our 235 seat Boeing 757 aircraft. After successful services last winter to Tenerife and Lanzarote we will be operating up to 27 flights a week to the Islands this financial year.
The Canary Islands Tourist Authorities will actively promote the destinations
throughout our region and bookings to date are encouraging.
The company plans to further expand its longer distance services and winter sun routes to enhance our overall offering to our customers.
During the year the company acquired five Boeing 757-200 aircraft. The Boeing 757-200 is a versatile aircraft able to carry up to 235 passengers over 3,000 miles. Its overall performance is particularly suited to Leeds Bradford which is a high airport with some operational constraints. The Boeing 757-200 allows the company to offer a range of destinations from both Leeds Bradford and its other bases that other aircraft cannot match. At the same time it is extremely environmentally friendly in terms of noise, fuel efficiency and emissions.
We expect to increase our Boeing 757 fleet over the coming years and also to operate similar, larger types which will allow our customers to explore an expanding range of popular destinations at the lowest possible fares.
In February 2007, Jet2holidays was launched to offer flexible duration
flight, transfers and hotel packages linked, primarily, to our scheduled
services. Whilst this is a highly competitive market, we believe that by
packaging attractive hotels with our low fares we can give our leisure customers great value holidays. The concept is currently being marketed on a limited basis whilst the mechanics of the process are developed. However, we are pleased that customer feedback to date has been good and
we look forward to putting full promotional spend behind the product for the next year.
Jet2 aims to expand its business by serving traditional leisure markets at
highly competitive prices and developing a range of longer distance low-cost
services that meet the aspirations of leisure travellers. Obviously routes take
time to develop and costs are incurred in building volumes and taking market
share.
We will be continuing investment in new routes over the coming year so profit growth in this area of our business is likely to be flat.
In the competitive scheduled low-cost travel market, which is becoming
progressively later booking and therefore more difficult to predict, whilst our
235 seat Boeing 757s differentiate our product and capabilities from several of
our competitors, new routes take time and money to develop to profitability.
However, the consolidation of the major tour operators, who currently have large capacity to many of the destinations we also serve, should give real opportunities both for our scheduled business and Jet2holidays. Therefore, overall, whilst I believe it is unlikely that the Group's profits will increase this year, growth should resume thereafter.
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Would seem from this that the 767 rumour certainly has foundation, that there are likely to be more longer range winter sun routes coming on line and that the jet2 holidays business will be given a bigger push for summer 08, which may mean more "charter" type routes being invested in
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