14th Feb 2014 09:59
LONDON (Alliance News) - African low-cost airline Fastjet PLC Friday said its main Tanzanian business flew 20% more passengers in January than a year earlier, with yield per passenger almost doubling.
In a statement, the airline said it flew 31,241 passengers in January, up from 25,931 a year earlier, although its load factor fell to 60% from 63% as it increased capacity 27%. Still average yield per passenger was USD88, up from USD46 per passenger in January 2013.
"The post-Christmas period is traditionally one of the slowest months of the year but fastjet has avoided deep discounts and has successfully focussed on maintaining a strong yield. An average yield of $88 per passenger exceeded our expectations and the large growth in yield per passenger year-on-year clearly demonstrates the strong, continuing development of the Tanzanian air travel market and of the fastjet brand," interim Chairman and Chief Executive Ed Winter said in a statement.
The group also owns the Fly540 legacy carrier, which has operations in Kenya, Ghana and Angola. It is restructuring those operations whilst focusing on and quickly expanding its Fastjet operations in Tanzania.
Including Fly540, Fastjet's total passenger numbers fell to 79,741 in January, from 83,122 a year earlier.
For the 12 months to the end of January, Fastjet passenger numbers were 370,789, up from 57,343 for the previous 12 months, driving group passenger numbers to 983,678 for the period, up from 729,655 for the previous 12 months.
Fastjet shares were down 2.1% at 2.155 pence Friday morning.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @SteveMcGrath1
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