.png)
.png)
Air Malta records €0.4 million operating profit
Air Malta has recorded an operating profit of €0.4 million in the first half of this year.
Air Malta says its revenue has increased by 4.7 million.
This afternoon Malta's national airline Air Malta announced an operating profit of €0.4 million for the first half of this year.
According to the airline, the interim results reflected an improvement of €8.4 million over the same period last year when the airline registered an €8 million loss.
Air Malta said that the results achieved are ahead of the budget by €1.4 million.
"This is the first time in four years that an operational profit has been registered in this period. Both passenger and cargo revenue were the main growth factors contributing to an increase of €2 million over the corresponding period last year. Compared to the airline's budget, revenue has increased by €4.7 million," Air Malta said.
It added the results were achieved notwithstanding a 10% reduction in seat capacity. During this period Air Malta carried 1.05 million passengers, a slight reduction over last year. The trend in improving the passenger seat factor continued with an increase in this period of two percentage points to 79%.
Costs were also reduced during this period in various areas including a decrease in fuel of €3.2 million and of personnel €2.2 million costs.
Air Malta Chief Executive Peter Davies said,
"These figures are the result of the efforts we have put into the restructuring of Air Malta," Air Malta CEO Peter Davies said.
"The concerted effort has reversed the trend of the last years and finally we are reaping financial gains."
Davies however warned that the second half of the year was tougher due to the seasonality effects on Malta.
"We have to do a lot more to cut costs. Although we have reduced expenditure by €6.4million over the same period last year, we still have a substantial cost element which we need to tackle," Davies said.
He said it was imperative to re-negotiate terms with the major suppliers so that the airline continues reducing overheads and losses.
"We also need to start offering our passengers an improved and value for money customer experience in-line with today's customer trends and service levels," he said.
"This is not only imperative for us but also for our partner suppliers whose business is also tied with the restructuring and the return to profitability of Air Malta."
Joseph MELI •
Don't be fooled by such spin as these figures are massaged and overall Air Malta has for the past 8 years and still to this day is recording a balance sheet loss .Do these figures factor in the cost of the redundancy payments and start re-negotiating terms with the MIA first and foremost to reduce overheads and costs
•
Air malta introduced a passenger fee of euro 10 per ticket issued. This means that with this new fee air malta netted euro 10.5 million according to their 1 million and over passenger bookings. So if last year air malta lost 8 million and this year alone if it maintained last years losses of 8 million with just the introduction of the booking fee it should have made 2 million euro profit. This simply shows that air malta operating losses are 1.5 million greater than they where last year as the reported profit is 0.4 million not to million. Since when are we calling an increase in operating costs a profit is beyond immagination.
