12th Mar 2014 11:23
LONDON (Alliance News) - African low-cost airline, fastjet PLC said Wednesday its main Tanzanian business flew 35% more passengers in February than the comparable month last year, with average yield per passenger almost doubling.
The airline said it flew 35,100 passengers during the course of the month, up from 25,987 passengers flown in February last year, although its load factor fell 4% to 76% from 80% on the comparable month. Average yield per passenger came in at USD82 per passenger, up from USD47 in February 2013, but down on the USD88 reported in January.
Total revenues for the month was USD2.87 million, up 135% on February 2013 metrics, as the firm continues its expansion plans.
"Our February performance continues to demonstrate how well the low cost model is working, producing strong average yields whilst still providing plenty of low-fare seats for passengers booking their seats early. The continued growth in passenger numbers and yields puts fastjet well on track to become cash generative as the route network and capacity increase," Ed Winter, interim Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of fastjet, said.
fastjet also announced an extension to its current Equity Finance Facility with Darwin Strategic Ltd from GBP15 million to GBP25 million. All other aspects of the initial EFF agreement announced on June 14, 2013 remain unchanged. fastjet said it is also in talks with a number of potential long term investors.
The group 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. "As expected, the passenger numbers carried by the legacy 540 businesses, particularly in Angola, continued to fall year-on-year as those businesses undergo significant restructuring," said the firm.
Including Fly540, Fastjet's total passenger numbers rose to 79,715 from 77,829 in February last year, up 2.4%.
For the 12 months to the end of February, fastjet said it flew 379,901 passengers, a 356% increase on the 83,330 passengers for the previous 12 months, leading to a 29.9% increase in group passenger numbers to 985,565 for the period from 758,970 for the previous 12 months. This also shows a rise on January's metrics, with the 12 months rolling group passenger numbers recorded at 983,678.
The firm yesterday announced that it recently signed two partnership agreements with Rentalcars.com parent company, TravelJigsaw Ltd and Looking4Parking.com, marking the launch of ancillary products on fastjet.com
Shares in the airline were trading down 2.22% at 1.98 pence per share Wednesday.
By Alice Attwood; [email protected]; @AliceAtAlliance
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