Bmi British Midland profits increase to £12.4m

In their latest report bmi British Midland have revealed an increase in pre-tax profits of 51.2% to £12.4 million up from £8.2 million in 2000.

This is on the back of a 2.4% growth in revenues to £756.9 million (up from £739.2 million in 2000) for the year ending 31 December 2001.

However, bmi said that passengers carried had declined by 5.2% to 6.7 million, down from 7.1 million in 2000, as a direct consequence of the tragic events in September 11. The company estimates around £35 million in revenue was lost as a result primarily through a significant drop in transfer passengers through the Heathrow hub post September.

Although the company incurred an operating loss of almost £12 million for the year this was mitigated by the net effect of several exceptional items.

Sir Michael Bishop, chairman of bmi british midland said: "2001 was a defining year in the aviation industry and one of marked contrasts for bmi. Prior to 11 September we had already commenced a restructure of the organisation in the light of softer trading conditions which had been evident earlier but we were still anticipating achievement of our budgeted operating profit. Subsequently we were obliged to take more radical action with reductions in capacity and a substantial redundancy programme, and ended the year with an operating loss."

Sir Michael said that in spite of the increased difficulties in the market place post September 11 and the UK Foot and Mouth outbreak - particularly in the North West of England - bmi were "extremely encouraged" by the performance of long haul services launched from Manchester to Washington and Chicago in the Spring of 2001.

Volumes had picked up strongly over the last two months with current load factors well over 70%.

He also said that no-frills carrier bmibaby, was trading well ahead of budget and had recently announced three new routes and significant expansion of its fleet.

On current booking rates more than 500,000 passengers will be carried in the nine months of operation of the current financial year and 1.5 million passengers were anticipated for 2003.

During 2001 there had been the first major rebranding of the airline for nearly 20 years and bmi British Midland has investment in long haul routes notably with the delivery of three Airbus A330 - 200 aircraft.

The airline had also re-entered the transatlantic market with the launch of scheduled services from Manchester to Washington DC and Chicago.

(SP)