Q2 earnings reach €17.6m
Air Berlin has today (Aug 25) reported a 33% jump in profits the second quarter.
Germany's second largest airline saw pre-tax earnings rise to €17.6m in Q2 from €13.2m in the same period last year.
Air Berlin said a strengthening in liquidity had had a "positive effect" on its balance sheet.
"Despite a challenging market environment, Air Berlin has succeeded in improving its relative position with respect to flights within Europe," Air Berlin's ceo Joachim Hunold said.
"Using different capital measures, Air Berlin has succeeded in improving its equity and liquidity, thus significantly lowering net indebtedness.
"We are pleased with the results for the first half-year of 2009."
The airline said a new €125m "convertible bond" this month had allowed it to repurchase €90m in existing bonds for around €55m.
"The remaining €70m will be used to refinance future airplane deliveries and to improve liquidity," the airline said.
Total revenue fell 3.8% year-on-year to €836.2m, the result of widespread capacity cuts.
Net profit in the three months period fell to €7.1m from €7.8m last year as passenger traffic decreased 5.5% year-on-year.
Air Berlin said the decrease in passenger numbers was lower than that seen by the European airline sector as a whole.
The airline said its European market share had improved despite drops in demand and capacity cuts.
Capacity in the second quarter fell 10.5% year-on-year while load factor also fell to 74.8% from 77.1%.
www.airberlin.com