22nd Oct 2013 07:50
LONDON (Alliance News) - Leisure airline and package holidays company Dart Group PLC Tuesday said it expects pretax profit for the first half to be up 37% as customers snapped up its package holidays and filled seats on its planes.
However, Dart warned that it expected to post increased second-half losses.
In a trading statement for the six months to September 30, the travel firm said passenger numbers were up 13% to 4.1 million.
During the period passenger numbers for package holiday division, Jet2holidays, increased 103% to 634,866, compared with 312,000 a year earlier, which the company attributed to further improvements to its product range.
West Yorkshire-based Dart Group said it had been "relentless" in its efforts to provide a great service its Northern based customers.
The firm's distribution and logistics business, Fowler Welch, continued to make good operational progress in the first six months but profitability was adversely affected by the varied profile of volumes handled during late July, August and September.
"Nevertheless, the strategy of the business remains consistent; continuing to focus on growing its revenue pipeline and delivering operational efficiency improvements in a sector that continues to experience tight margins," Dart said.
However, the company cautioned: "Our leisure travel operations are becoming increasingly seasonal as we continue to grow the business. This will result in the Group's profit before taxation for the first half of the year being approximately 37% ahead of the same period in the previous year, with increased losses expected in the second half."
For the full financial year, Dart said it remains "cautiously optimistic" for profit growth, with much depending on the crucial winter booking period.
The group intends to announce its interim results for the six months on November 21.
Dart shares were down 9.2% at 227.06 pence per share early Tuesday, putting it among the top-10 losers on AIM.
By Anthony Tshibangu; [email protected]; @AnthonyAllNews
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