Results herald ‘rebirth of Flybe’

The company, which flies from Leeds-Bradford International Airport, said it made a good start to the new financial year and trading is in line with expectations.

The airline, which serves 35 UK airports having reduced its number of bases from 13 to seven in the last year, reported bottom-line profits of £8.1m in the year to March 31, compared with a loss of £41.1m a year earlier.

Chief executive Saad Hammad said the figures marked the “rebirth of Flybe” after a restructuring that has seen the loss of 1,100 jobs and a 1.4 per cent reduction in capacity as it moves to shed loss-making routes.

It carried a record 7.7 million passengers on its UK scheduled services in the period, a rise of 6.9 per cent as it benefited from fare promotions and better routes.

The airline recently announced five new routes from London City airport and a complete relaunch of the Flybe brand, but some further job losses are still likely after this summer as seasonal routes are discontinued and aircraft grounded.

Mr Hammad said: “We believe that we are now on the verge of emerging from this period of retrenchment, and looking forward to future considered and careful profitable growth.”

Airline profits have been under pressure over the past few years as cash-strapped customers took fewer flights in the years following the economic meltdown of 2008, adding to the burden of soaring fuel costs and higher airport charges.

Flybe kick-started a turnaround programme last January, trimming costs by giving up airport slots, cutting jobs, exiting unprofitable flight routes and grounding surplus fleet.

These measures helped the budget carrier swing to a pre-tax profit of £8.1m for the year to March 31.

Flybe reported an improvement in passenger revenues per seat of 1.8 per cent to £49.70, while its share of the UK regional market grew to 55.1 per cent from 52.4 per cent.

The airline said it was a “source of amazement” that Air Passenger Duty (APD) continued to result in a typical domestic flight being charged five times the tax per mile of a long-haul one.

Chairman Simon Laffin said: “This is exacerbated when a return international flight suffers this charge once, but a domestic one is taxed twice.

“Yet in the last Budget, the Government actually reduced long-haul APD rates by £1bn, while informing Flybe that it could not afford to reduce domestic rates.”

Flybe also has a business with Finland’s Finnair, where it flies planes under the Finnish airline’s livery and which posted a profit before tax of £6.3m, compared with £4.6m a year ago.

The group said it is in discussions with other major carriers about expanding its joint ventures.