Hedges boost Kenya's half-year profit

Kenya Airways reported a KES860 million ($11 million) profit in the fiscal semester ended Sept. 30, up 16.8% from the KES736 million earned in the year-ago period thanks to relatively stable operating results and gains on its fuel hedges. Six-month revenue fell 1.7% year-over-year to KES33.5 billion while costs inched up 1.7% to KES33.3 billion, resulting in an 8% fall in operating profit to KES162 million. KQ said the "volatile" political climate, an August strike and the "global economic meltdown" all impacted the results. Traffic dropped 4.7% against a 6.4% increase in ASKs, which lowered load factor 7.7 points to 66.1%. Yield measured in KES rose 12%, but fell 8.2% in US dollars owing to exchange rate fluctuations. KQ said it "remains optimistic that the company's performance will continue to improve throughout the second half" and it "intends to continue investing in developing an even more competitive product."

Originally published 2 Nov 2009 at: http://feeds.atwonline.com/~r/AtwDailyNews/~3/vGbCKCVgxUg/story.html