Fourth Quarter to 31st March 2008
The operating environment worsened in the fourth quarter with a slowdown in global economic growth and a sharp rise in oil prices. The group's passenger business was impacted by calendar effects in March which weighed on revenue per available seat kilometer (RASK), while cargo continued its recovery. Revenues were up 5.8% after a negative currency impact of 2.3% to 5.70 billion euros, for production measured in equivalent available seat kilometer (EASK) up 6.4%. Unit revenue per EASK declined by 0.8% but was up by 1.6% excluding the currency effect.
Operating costs rose by 6.9% but by only 3.3% excluding fuel. Unit cost per EASK rose slightly by 0.3% and was down by 2.1% on a constant currency and fuel price basis. The main change in costs was the fuel bill which rose by 19.5% to 1.19 billion euros (versus 994 million euros at 31 March 2007) under the combined effect of a rise in volumes of 4%, a rise in fuel costs after hedging of 26% and a positive currency effect of 11%.
The operating result was negative by 46 million euros, compared with a profit of 9 million euros at 31st March 2007.
Taking account of the current status of the investigation by the European and US competition authorities into the cargo activities of the airlines, the group booked a provision of 530 million euros pre-tax (493 million euros after tax), mostly non tax-deductible. As a consequence, we recorded a net loss, group share, of 542 million euros. Excluding this provision, the loss would have been 49 million euros against a positive result of 44 million euros a year earlier.
Information by business
Passenger business
In the last quarter, the passenger business experienced slower growth, but this was offset by a resilient yield. Traffic increased 3.0% with a 5.8% rise in capacity. The load factor stood at 78.0% (-2.1 points). The group carried 17.1 million passengers (+0.7%) generating revenues of 4.53 billion euros (+4.0% after a negative currency impact of 2.1%). Operating income was close to break-even, compared with a positive 31 million euros at 31st March 2007.
