"Not an easy year" - Savile
Air Partner, a leading private jet charter company, reported a 90% slump in pre-tax profits for the year ending July 31.
The company, based near Gatwick, said pre-tax profits for the year dropped from £9.2m in2008 to £900,000 this year.
It said its sales fell by 23% from £251.3m to £194.3m.
The company said that after a strong Q1, the year had become difficult but it said remained "profitable, debt free and cash positive".
Air Partner said it had lost "significant business" during the year and had taken "significant action taken to resize business and reduce costs for current trading conditions, after four consecutive years of record profits".
This had included £440,000 spent on "redundancies and re-structuring".
David Savile, Air Partner's ceo, said: "The past year has not been easy, but we have made significant progress in resizing the business to suit the current trading conditions.
"Despite the extreme challenges of the last year, Air Partner has remained profitable, debt free, cash positive and highly focused on providing clients with an unrivalled service.
"While short term uncertainty exists today, the Board remains confident that the driving forces of globalisation, economic growth and deterioration in the commercial airline services will support a sector recovery in the medium term."
www.airpartner.com