Dart Group AGM Statement and Announcement of New UK Base | Jet2.com
Dart Group AGM Statement and Announcement of New UK Base
08th September 2016
At the Company’s Annual General Meeting later today, Philip Meeson, Group Chairman and Chief Executive, will make the following statement:
"The good start to the financial year as reported in our Preliminary Results Statement of 14 July 2016 has continued, with summer
Leisure Travel bookings showing no signs of slowdown. Demand for our higher margin package holiday products continues to grow and as a result the number of package holiday customers, as a proportion of total departing customers, is also increasing. Though airline ticket yields and load factors are slightly lower than those achieved in summer 2015, this is against a backdrop of a 13% increase in seat capacity.
Leisure Travel bookings for winter 2016/17 are satisfactory at this early stage.
Continued encouraging progress is beingmade at
Fowler Welch, our Distribution & Logistics business, which is currently trading in line with expectations.
The Board is also pleased to announce London Stansted Airport as our ninth UK base. We expect to welcome customers on board our holiday flights from this new base in spring 2017. We believe that London Stansted has great potential for our holiday business, serving the populations of North and East London and the East of England.
In view of the significant investment which will be committed in the second half of this financial year to launch our London Stansted and recently announced Birmingham Airport bases, it is likely that Group operating profit will be slightly behind current market expectations despite the good trading performance achieved in the year to date.”
The Group will provide a further update when it announces its interim results for the six months ending 30 September 2016 on 17 November 2016