Airtours lifted - but for how much longer?
 

From today's Scotsman

Airtours lifted

AIRTOURS badly needed to say something positive, with its shares having fallen to their lowest level in six months.

The company said yesterday that UK summer bookings are 12 per cent ahead of last year, with average selling prices and load factors also up.

While fears of recession grow, the average UK consumer feels he has enough cash in his pocket for a holiday. The Bank of England’s four interest rate cuts have reduced mortgages payments to their lowest in 30 years, leaving more disposable income.

Airtours shares rose 11p, or 4.7 per cent, to 247p. The company reported turnover of £1.45
billion for the three months to 30 June, an increase of 24.9 per cent. The UK accounts for 54 per cent of the company’s sales. Turnover almost doubled at FTi, the company’s German operation, to £166.3 million.

However, FTi is still trading at a loss, albeit one that was reduced to £7 million from £11.1 million.

The picture after exceptionals, goodwill and tax is not so rosy. The company made a loss of £6.7 million, compared with £5.5 million a year earlier.

Carnival Cruises of the US held a 25 per cent stake in the company, and this had caused a drag on the share price. It was no surprise when Carnival said in May that it was looking to sell. Buyers came in to support the shares, but perhaps only because they were cheap, compared with the £5-plus levels they reached in 1999.

Analysts say the company will generate earnings-per-share of 18.9p for 2001 and 24.7p for 2002, after adjusting for exceptionals and goodwill. This gives price-earnings ratios of 13 and 10. The FTSE All-share year-averages are 20.2 and 18.7 respectively.

This makes Airtours look cheap, but the company may be a casualty if consumer confidence declines.

Its operating 50 more aircraft than you are Guv!!

Guv, give it a break will you

There are too many airlines/tour groups chasing customers in UK. It has long been thought that one of the big ones will soon fall by the wayside. If there is a serious recession, Airtours will go from merely haemorrhaging to bleeding.

Don't agree...I think AIH will be around for a while, infact I wouldn't be suprised to see a whole new image for the group within 2 years including a name change....!!! ;)

Don't think 247p per share is to bad when you consider First Choice is at 135p. Ok, First Choice haven't experienced the massive rise and fall in share price that AIH has but surely the lower the price the more at risk you are. IMHO AIH is not the worst of the UK charter airlines by a long chalk.

Big Tudor
The actual price of the shares is irrelevant because it only reflects the amount of shares issued relative to the value or market capitalisation of the company.

ie company A has 10,000 shares issued and they trade at £1. Company B has 1,000 shares issued and they trade at £10. Then the value or market cap of these 2 companies is exactly the same despite the difference in the share price. If you are analysing a company you can look at the market value compared to the book value, known as price/book. Or price earnings ratio (P/E) which is self explanatory, dividend yield is another commomly used yardstick, ie how much does the company pay out. Sophisticated investors have a host of other measurements they would look at.

hope I have not been too boring! :D

"The Times" ran two articles today, both favourable, one describing the turnaround in overseas AIH operations, the other, by Robert Cole ("Tempus"), says "Buy"! Sounds OK to me!...

This is not a good year for any Tour Op. Just look down the back guys, have you ever seen so many empty seats in August? Thomson And Airtours are safe just because of their size,as for othres well you just don't know, but, no one will make much money this year.

BTW How can buying a loss making operation one year and closing it the next be considered good business by Airtours?


My Stock Tip.
"Put your money in other industrys!"
:(

I hear that Airtours is to be rebranded (rather uninspiringly, in my opinion) "MyTravel".

The following sign has apparently replaced that of Airtours at HUY.

http://www.geocities.com/europeancentral/MyTravel.gif

Is this true? Comments?

Desk Driver,

Our charter loads have been very good.

Well Guvernor, As a long time travel Photographer,I am currently shooting
Summer 2002 Brochures big style.
Confidence seems very high and the key phrase is "branding branding and more branding" - - - -Current branding that is !!!!!

[ 11 August 2001: Message edited by: El Grifo ]

[ 11 August 2001: Message edited by: El Grifo ]

Sounds like a load of tripe to me.

Airtours is doing very well at "filling 'em" at the moment, and why knock them when they are finally in a up-turn?

A name change? Give it a break Guv. If you were a holiday passenger, you would look first to a well known brand. Airtours is generally a well-known, reputable, trusted name, and a name change would do nothing for them whatsoever.

Let us use our logic for a moment, shall we?

If a major travel concern was to make a large-scale, complete identity change, do you suppose that the public would find out about it from a more conspicuous source than a small sign at a desk in Humberside?

Could it just be that the desk was taken over by somebody else?

Heh, what a daft idea!

SFly :rolleyes:

It worries me to see the words Guv and Airtours in the same post.
I happily admit to working for AIH and am equally happy that we are nearly always full thank you.

"Mytravel.co" is a new AIH internet booking company. Not a re-brand, but an additional brand in the AIH group. I think the idea is to expand into the US Ebooking market.

[ 12 August 2001: Message edited by: homer j ]

I’ve noticed more empty seats than usual.
That might not be a bad thing, as I’m not in favour of devaluing the product by giving it away and at the same time making those who have paid the proper price feel ripped off.
My feeling is that there is a downturn on the way, so the industry would be wise to reduce capacity.
I expect they will carry on as usual, then have a fire sale and expect the employees to pay for it.

:mad:

Is it true that the Man from Leisure has gone in a sharpening of the knives ?. :confused: :D

K13+K9 . . . What??? :confused:

K9 etc ... Yes it's true! Fat useless bastard!

Are you referring to the ex-MD? Why did he go then?