Vueling doubles its net profit up to the third quarter

Vueling achieves a net profit of 41.3 million euros in the period between January and September, double the same period of last year

Highlights

Vueling made an operating profit of 50.1 million euros in the third quarter of 2012, an improvement of 22% on the same period of last year. The operating profit (EBIT) rose by 12% on last year to 68.2 million euros. For the period from January to September, the net profit amounted to 41.3 million euros, an increase of 93%.

The company increased the number of passengers carried by 22.7% on the third quarter of last year. Vueling carried 5.2 million passengers between July and September and improved the load factor of its flights to 80.9%, 0.3 pps higher than the same period of last year. This increase in traffic was partly the result of the increase in connecting passengers at Barcelona El Prat airport. The number of connecting passengers in Barcelona airport doubled compared with the same period of last year and reached a total of 636,000 passengers in the third quarter.

Vueling’s total revenue rose by 26.3%, up to 417.3 million euros in the third quarter. This rise in revenue was the result both of the improvement in unit revenue and the increase in passenger traffic (+22.7%). Consequently, revenue per passenger rose by 2.7% on last year, up to €80.4.

With regard to costs, Vueling cut its ex-fuel unit cost by 2.6% in the third quarter. The unit cost per available seat kilometre (ASK) excluding fuel stood at 3.82 euro cents. Fuel costs rose by 34.1% on last year as a result of the greater volume of activity (+30.6% of ASK) and the greater unit fuel cost per available seat kilometre (ASK). The unit fuel cost per ASK rose by 1.9% on the third quarter of 2011 as a result of the depreciation of the euro against the dollar (-11%). Despite the increase in the unit fuel cost, the total unit cost per available seat kilometre (ASK) fell by 1.2%.

Vueling continues to strengthen its financial structure and has increased its net cash balance to 406.6 million euros as at 30 September 2012, 38 million euros more than at 30 June 2012.