Friday, August 08, 2008
BUDGET Travel, owned by Icelandic firm Primera, made a pre-tax profit of €4.3 million last year.
This follows pre-tax losses in the previous year of €1.9m, according to accounts just filed.
Revenue however was down from €164m in 2006 to €160m in 2007.
The company said the latest result is a positive turnaround from the previous year.
It said it carried 5% less passengers in 2007 than 2006, but this was a planned capacity reduction whereby unprofitable routes were shortened or eliminated.
In its directors’ report it said the overall load factor on its flights fell slightly to 96.8% from 97.1% in 2006.
It said Ryanair and Aer Lingus both introduced daily flights to Salou and Majorca respectively, which increased the level of competition on these routes.
"In line with our policy of being the low prices holiday company, brochure prices were only increased to take account of increased fuel and accommodation costs," the company directors said.
The accounts also noted that selling prices held strong in the year — especially in the later month.
The directors, in their report, also said Ireland experienced a very wet and cold summer in 2007 and the availability of late holidays and the levels of discount required to sell these holidays was significantly reduced from the end of August, September and October.
The new owners of Budget Travel also plan to make significant investment in IT systems and the company said the implementation of a new reservation system in 2008 will offer flexibility and choice to customers.
"This will allow Budget Travel to compete more effectively in the marketplace and to offer a wider variety of holidays to customers."
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