Related Articles
Top Stories
Feb 13 2012 12:15
Miner Xstrata says it has brought forward maintenance on two furnaces to assist Eskom to save power.
Feb 13 2012 10:43
Although jobs were created, the economy is still 420 000 jobs short of the peak employment level before the 2009 global financial crisis, says Adcorp.
Feb 13 2012 07:58
Greek lawmakers have approved a new round of drastic austerity measures after a long day of street battles between police and protesters left dozens injured.
Johannesburg - 2008 was the most turbulent year in aviation history, 1time airline said on Wednesday as it released its annual results.
"The year was characterised by exceptional revenue growth, unprecedented fuel price increases, currency volatility and the global credit crunch," the low-cost airline said in a statement.
However, it added that its results had been "satisfactory" in spite of reporting a loss.
The fall in headline earnings from R29.9m last year to R0.97m for the year was largely due to the R17.9m foreign currency translation charge caused by the dramatic weakening of the rand in the last quarter of 2008, it said.
There was also a R10.8m impairment loss on the four DC9 aircraft held for sale that had to be taken into consideration.
According to 1time, the domestic air travel market, as measured by passenger departures at all Airports Company of SA airports, decreased by six percent from 13.1 million passengers in 2007 to 12.3 million in 2008.
"This is the first contraction in the domestic market after an average 15% increase per year for the previous five years."
The decline in the overall market demand was attributed to a combination of fuel induced higher airfares, lower gross domestic product growth and the credit crunch.
1time said the contraction was particularly severe in the second half of 2008.
However, despite the market contractions, 1time managed to grow its passenger numbers by 18% to 1.6 million for 2008, it said.
"These market share gains by 1time have been achieved largely due to a focused strategy to entice business travellers from the higher airfare legacy carriers."
The airline said its first regional route to Zanzibar was performing well and it had an application pending to expand to Livingstone, Zambia, as well.
The airline said it was awaiting a ruling from the Competition Commission regarding its objection to 1time's exclusion from operating air services from Lanseria Airport.
Looking ahead, the airline said it expected a strong profit performance for the first half of 2009 and for the full year assuming the current market conditions continued and that currency levels and oil prices stabilised around current levels.
- Sapa