Austrian Airlines is warning it will not be able to produce reliable results forecasts for 2009 as it wrestles with the exorbitant oil price and the potential of a ”strategic partnership.”
The Vienna-based carrier has broken cover to say that previous estimates for next year ”are outdated” and has called in a consulting group to advise on possible partnerships.
An Extraordinary Meeting of the Supervisory and Management Boards acknowledged that there could be benefits from a ”strategic partnership” although firm details as to any potential tie-up remain unclear. Lufthansa has formerly been touted as a possible buyer for Austrian. Any initial findings of the Boston Consulting Group will be made available at the end of July.
In a statement released in Vienna, Austrian noted that: ”Evaluation of the possible effects on the result is based on the current situation of the Austrian Airlines Group, which is under strain due to the high price of kerosene.
”The additional costs [of kerosene] and associated difficult peripheral conditions are currently shaping the entire airline industry, which has adjusted its expectations for the current year significantly downwards.”
Strong stuff and Austrian does not hide the extent to which it and others, is being battered by the stratospherically high oil price. The carrier estimates that it will incur additional fuel costs of ”130m this year, significantly influencing next year”s result.
The one ray of light in an otherwise unremittingly gloomy outlook is that Austrian ”does not believe that the oil price is likely to remain at $130 or more per barrel,” but adds that any date when that figure may begin to fall is extremely difficult to predict.