Jazeera Airways Group demonstrated to shareholders at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Kuwait the measures it took to successfully bring it back to record profitability in the second half of 2010.
2010 financial highlights:
- FY2010 operating profit of KD5.3 million, vs. 2009 operating loss of KD5.4 million
– FY2010 net loss of KD2.8 million, vs. 2009 net loss of KD8.2 million
– FY2010 revenue of KD42.6 million
– Best third quarter earnings on record, best second half since 2008
– Two consecutive profitable quarters at ‘operating’ and ‘net’ levels for the first time
– Acquisition of Sahaab Aircraft Leasing generated immediate and growing revenues
2010 commercial highlights:
- Second half load factors increased by 11% to 66%, compared to the same period in 2009
– Average yield improved by 40% from KD24.4 to KD34.4 in second half of 2010, compared to the same period in 2009
– 2010 travel agency sales up 6% from 2009
– Market dominance on most routes
– Solid network, profitable routes
– High aircraft utilization
– Reduced cost and continuous robust cost management
Group chairman Marwan Boodai said: "Our performance in 2010 was not just about drastically cutting our losses. It was about turning around our business and bringing it back to profitability after a year of consecutive quarterly losses due to various external reasons. Chief among these external factors was the incredible overcapacity that was dumped on Middle Eastern routes by other players, mostly governmental airlines."
“One of the first initiatives we took to help us manage the excess capacity in the market was our acquisition of Sahaab Aircraft Leasing in February 2010. Our goal was to utilize it as a vehicle for the redeployment of some of Jazeera Airways excess capacity to other international markets. The acquisition proved invaluable and started generating revenues immediately for the Group, since Jazeera Airways was already a Sahaab customer. Later in the year, Sahaab acquired more customers, successfully placing five aircraft with world-class airlines, four of which were with Virgin America and one with SriLankan Airlines.”
Building on the acquisition of Sahaab, the management began rolling out a set of measures that we internally called the Turn-Around Plan (TAP) in May 2010. The plan’s objective was to bring the airline back to profitability by resizing the business to meet the external business environment.
These measures included asset redeployment, staff reductions, rigorous cost management, network/market alignment and an enhanced commercial offering, which was rolled out over several months.
The plan began yielding results immediately and above expectations. With just three months into the plan, Jazeera Airways Group reported a net profit of KD4.4 million for the third quarter – the best quarter on record.
Six months into the plan, the airline closed two consecutive quarters with positive results at net and operating levels.
By year-end, the airline carried 1.3 million passengers in total, 15% of Kuwait International Airport passengers, on a total of 14,276 flights across its network.