Clickair merger boosts Vueling's bottom line

Vueling Airlines, which merged with Clickair in July (ATWOnline, July 13), posted a third-quarter operating profit of €68.1 million ($102.1 million) compared to EBIT of €24.7 in the year-ago period when it was an independent carrier. Revenue rose 68.6% year-over-year to €259.2 million and operating expenses increased 48.2% to €191.1 million. Unit revenue fell by just 1.3% to 6.97 euro cents as fuel surcharges rose, while CASK sank 13.2% to 5.14 euro cents thanks to dropping oil prices and "cautious" fuel hedges. Third-quarter capacity grew 70.8% to 3.72 billion ASKs as Vueling's fleet rose from 20 to 35 A320s. Traffic increased 75.5% to 2.97 billion RPKs and load factor gained 2.1 points to 80%. The LCC served 47 airports as of Sept. 30, 25 more than on the year-ago date. Operating profit for the nine months to Sept. 30 was €71.9 million compared to a loss of €18.7 million in the year-ago period. The Barcelona-based carrier said "no major changes in the demand situation are foreseen" for the fourth quarter. It expects 2010 results to be "even better" than 2009's.

Originally published 28 Oct 2009 at: http://feeds.atwonline.com/~r/AtwDailyNews/~3/Kj2VLgxVVXo/story.html