Profit (or loss) for a single part of a group of companies is a rather subjective matter. There are all kinds of things an accountant can do to make the figures look better or worse . An example of this might be where aircraft maintenance is performed centrally with the cost recharged to the various subsidiaries - charge too high and the maintenance subsidiary makes an unfair profit and the aircraft operationgs look loss making. Charge too low and the reverse is true.
An alternative way of fiddling the figures is having one company in a group doing all the external leasing, and charging artifically high or low lease rates (call it "management fees") to the other subsidiaries. Perhaps instead the head office cost code charges marketing fees for running the sales operation and handing over only part of the cash to the part of the business doing the flying ? Who's *really* making the profit or loss ? Can all get very murky and difficult to decipher....
Does anyone have some profit / loss figures showing how bmi regional would look if it were operated on a standalone basis ?