Jet2.com is confident about the future
'‹Dart Group's '‹executive chairman'‹ Philip Meeson'‹ said'‹: "There remains considerable uncertainty around Brexit negotiations and the effect these could have, both on our freedom to fly and on our customers' ability to travel to our leisure destinations. '‹"'‹This is unsettling'‹. H'‹owever, we believe that the UK Government recognises the importance of aviation services, and similarly, European countries appreciate the value that British tourists bring to their respective economies. '‹"'‹Therefore, for the long-term, we remain confident in the resilience of our '‹l'‹eisure '‹t'‹ravel business and we are encouraged by the increasing proportion of customers choosing our great value, real package holidays, which are not easily replicated by non-specialists, and have proven particularly popular in challenging economic times.'‹"He was speaking as the firm announced a fall in '‹annual profits.'‹Pre-tax profit '‹fell 14'‹ per cent'‹ to £90.1m '‹in the year to March 31'‹ '‹following '‹"'‹considerable'‹"'‹ investment'‹" to launch two new Jet2.com operating bases at Birmingham and London Stansted Airports'‹.'‹It'‹ also includes a '‹hefty '‹Â£10.9m charge for foreign exchange revaluation losses'‹ following the collapse in the pound post the referendum'‹'‹. The group suffered a much smaller charge of £1.3m in 2016'‹.'‹Excluding the foreign exchange impact, underlying pre-tax profits fell 4 per cent to £101.0m.Group '‹r'‹evenue'‹ rose 23'‹ per cent '‹to £1'‹.'‹7'‹bn '‹following strong '‹l'‹eisure '‹t'‹ravel demand'‹. Dart said resilient ticket pricing for the summer 2016 season gave way to heavier price discounting in the second half of the year to achieve the planned growth in customer volumes. '‹The board is recommending a final dividend of 3.897p, bringing the proposed total dividend to 5.272p per share for the year.The firm also announced a colleague profit sharing scheme. The profit share will be calculated at the rate of 5 per cent of pre-tax profit, excluding foreign currency revaluations and other exceptional items.Mr Meeson said the scheme will reward colleagues who do not already participate in a performance related bonus or commission scheme and who have been continuously employed for at least 12 months. The first payment will be made in July 2019.Jet2.com '‹said it '‹flew a total of 7.10m passengers to and from popular sun, city and ski destinations during the year, an increase of 17'‹ per cent'‹. '‹"'‹Demand for our real package holidays continued to grow as Jet2holidays took 1.73m customers on package holidays, an increase of 42'‹ per cent," said Mr Meeson.'‹"'‹Our important flight-only product was enjoyed by 3.64m passengers in the year. Average airline ticket yields at £86.65 and average load factors at 91.5'‹ per cent'‹ were respectively 5'‹ per cent'‹ and one percentage point lower than those achieved in the prior year.'‹"The average price of a package holiday was £617'‹.Dart has invested in a new engineering facility at Manchester Airport and added a fourth flight simulator to its training centre in Bradford.'‹Last summer'‹ Jet2.com operated 63 aircraft from '‹its'‹ seven Northern UK airport bases to 63 destinations, serving 440 holiday resorts, including the addition of three new destinations: Girona in Spain, Naples and Berlin. '‹"'‹With the commencement of operations from Birmingham and London Stansted Airports and the addition of two new destinations, Costa de Almeria in Spain and Halkidiki in Greece, the aircraft fleet has increased to 75 for summer 2017, with a commensurate increase in pilots, engineers and cabin crew'‹," said Mr Meeson.'‹'‹"'‹Whether taking a holiday flight with Jet2.com, or an end-to-end real package holiday with Jet2holidays, we recognise that this is one of the most important family experiences of the year. Our core principles therefore are to be family friendly, offer value for money and give great service, so each of our customers has a lovely holiday.'‹"'‹'‹'‹The group said that both the leisure travel and distribution & logistics businesses have made satisfactory starts to the new financial year. Mr Meeson said that current forward bookings and the recent successful launch of the new operating bases at Birmingham and London Stansted Airports mean the board expects to meet current market pre-tax profit expectations.