AEA Airlines' Operating Surplus Doubles
By Cathy Buyck, Air Transport World | Jun. 30, 2006
Assn. of European Airlines members collectively posted a provisional operating profit of $755 million in 2005, up 82.8% from $413 million the previous year, according to data released yesterday in AEA's Yearbook 06.Operating margin of the 30 carriers edged up to 0.9% from 0.4% in 2004, which AEA said "must be regarded as unsatisfactory still for a year in which most of the fundamentals were favorable--strong demand, economic growth, low interest."
Passenger yields rose 1% but were more than offset by an 8.5% increase in unit costs. Almost all the yield improvement was attributed to North Atlantic routes, which recorded a 6.5% gain. Yield on Far East routes edged up 0.9% but intra-European yields fell 0.6%. Fuel was the most important factor in cost development, AEA confirmed, accounting for 20% of 2005 operating costs, up 8 points from just two years earlier.
AEA airlines boarded 320 million passengers in 2005, an increase of 9.9 million over the previous year. In RPK terms, growth was 6.3% whereas ASKs grew 4.3%, producing a record load factor of 76%, 1.4 points up on 2004. Traffic gains were recorded across all regions.
Passengers carried by AEA airlines within Europe neared 250 million, with a ratio of cross-border to domestic traffic of about 3:2. European leisure airlines transported close to 100 million, similar to "no-frills" carriers, and regionals carried about 25 million.
Italy was the only one of the top six AEA cross-border markets to show an above-average passenger increase at plus 9.5%. Traffic to/from Germany, France, Spain and the Netherlands grew by less than 5%, and a small decrease was recorded in the UK market probably due in part to ongoing no-frills penetration.