The Monarch Group is on course to return to profit by the autumn after slashing losses as part of a turnaround plan.
The group’s pre-tax loss for the year to October 31, 2012, was cut by 71% from £51.1 million to £14.9 million, described as being in line with business objectives. Total revenues rose by 8.9% to £825.1 million.
This follows completion of a refinancing of the group in November 2011. Total revenues for Monarch Airlines rose by 10% to £206.4 million in the six months to April 30 this year with passenger numbers up by 7% to 1.9 million.
The group’s tour operations, covering Cosmos, Avro and somewhere2stay, saw revenues for the winter half year rise by 15% to £75.5 million, with carryings up by 14.4% to 188,000.
Unique visitors to the group’s online platforms grew by 13.6% from 8.7 million to 9.8 million in the half year.
Executive chairman Iain Rawlinson said: “The final FY12 numbers, including a 71% reduction in adjusted pre‐tax losses, underline the substantial progress we have made in the first full year of our turnaround towards our target of restoring the group to overall profitability by October 2013.”
He added: “The group has made a satisfactory start in the first six months of the current financial year to October 2013, with further increases in Monarch Airlines’ passengers, yields and revenues.
“Cosmos Holidays and our related tour operating activities have continued to strongly outperform the overall holiday market, and our engineering activity continues to increase revenues from a growing third-party customer base.
“As at the beginning of June 2013, bookings for the key departure months of July and August are advancing well with both the airline and tour operations Divisions ahead of last year in load factors and yields for the summer season.
“We have appropriate levels of capacity and high‐quality inventory at competitive prices available, and we are satisfactorily positioned to meet the requirements of our customers during the peak summer trading period.”
Looking forward, Rawlinson said: “The satisfactory trading environment experienced in the first half has continued into the summer months.
“However, second half market conditions remain challenging as the group remains cautious about the economic outlook in the UK and the pressures on consumers from cost inflation and employment prospects.
“Our expectations for the market for the remaining part of this year and next are accordingly conservative.”