? Excluding negative amortisation of goodwill (which is ?paper? accounting and is not a trading item), the performance is in fact quite a bit better than 2008-09 ( a point that the Press Release makes when it refers to an increase in EBITDAR).
? Turnover (boosted by Greek contract which was clearly of major benefit) is about the same, as are passenger numbers. In summary the 0.1m shortfall in passengers and the 10% reduction in yields in the first part of the year being offset by Greece
? No detailed split of Greek turnover and Greek profit are given (note 5 states commercially sensitive)
? Cash inflow from operations (cash flow statement and note 27) £50.9m compared to £31.4m in 2009. This is the best indicator of underlying trading performance and should be viewed very very positively
? Increase in cash balances despite £11m of net capital expenditure and £24m of net loan repayment
? Clearly there was some negative impact caused by the adverse conditions, but one hopes it won?t return at this disruption for 20010-11
The Outlook
This seems quite bullish with comments such as:-
? ?Year on year growth both in volumes and yield in the final quarter of 2009/10?
? ?Domestic market shares continued to grow?
? Greek planes plus new planes ? will return..as the economies..emerge from recession?
? ?an excellent position compared to many other airlines?
? The Training Academy will ?ensure substantial benefits in terms of ..overall costs of delivery?
? ?Flybe in excellent shape to harvest these investments as the ..economies continue to emerge from recession?
Clearly some volcanic disruption which will impact current year figures
Some trivia from the accounts
The hedging against currency and interest rates is showing a £7.3m positive gain as at March 2010 (see Directors Report) which should hopefully be of some major benefit in 2010-11
Consolidated balance sheet is stronger than 2008 and there are cash balances of £62.1m with bank loans c £23m lower than 2009 (£83m v £106m)
£1.1m was spent (inc £0.4m to the auditors) on professional fees ?in connection with strategic projects?. This will include the set up of the Greek contract.
Staff Costs etc
? Interestingly total pay to Directors went up by 28.5% (see note 6) on an unchanged Board
? Average pay (excl pensions and NI) for all staff (inc Directors) increased from £32,657 to £32,774) a 0.3% increase. Excluding the Directors I assess that average pay actually reduced by 3.8% compared to their 28.5% increase.
? Note 34 is quite interesting. 4 Directors have been given interest free loans totalling £36k in the period to allow them to buy shares in the Company