EUROSTAR'S SALES REVENUE for the first three months of 2010 increased 5 per cent year-on-year to £178 million.
The figure was good news for the company after its passengers suffered days of delays and cancellations after a rail crash in Belgium blocked the high-speed line. The number of business travellers remained constant, but leisure passengers between the UK and the continent rose by 6 per cent.
Sales in the business market were "broadly the same as in Q4 2009", said Eurostar. Two million passengers travelled with the cross-Channel train operator in the first three months of 2010, compared to 1.9m in 2009. Travellers from outside Europe increased by 22 per cent. Eurostar has also announced that a company restructure was nearing completion. The firm - currently a partnership between shareholders London & Continental Railways, SNCF and SNCB - is to become a single entity.
Nicolas Petrovic, Eurostar's chief executive, said: "I am very pleased that we are moving closer to the new corporate structure which will streamline decision making, deliver consistency of service standards across the three countries and ensure that the business is well placed to compete in an open-access world."