druga_goska
02.11.04, 10:54
BAA profits rise
Tue 2 November, 2004 08:04
LONDON (Reuters) - The country's biggest airport operator BAA says first-half
pretax profit rose 16.3 percent as cheap airfares and stronger economies
drove up passenger numbers.
The owner of Heathrow airport, the world's busiest international hub, is on
track to deliver forecasts for six percent passenger growth this year, it
said on Tuesday.
"We still anticipate net retail income per passenger for the full year to be
in line with that achieved last year," Chief Executive Mike Clasper said in a
statement on Tuesday.
BAA BAA.L said pretax profit for the six months to end-September was 363
million pounds compared with 312 million pounds a year earlier.
The result was in line with consensus forecasts of 364 million pounds,
according to seven analysts polled by Reuters.
"We are comfortable with the forecasts this year ... next year we will see
some slowdown in growth," Clasper told reporters on a conference call.
First-half group operating profit rose 11.4 percent to 391 million pounds.
The figure included a 6-million-pound asset write-off related to Heathrow
Express check-in facilities.
Air travel has been steadily recovering from last year's woes, when the
effects of the Iraq war, SARS virus and a global economic downturn caused a
drop in passenger numbers.
BAA, not as sensitive to economic cycles as airlines, draws its income from
airline take-off and landing fees, car parks, retail rent, airport
advertising and its duty-free shops. Current high fuel prices do not hurt its
earnings.
Clasper warned the company faced the challenge of difficult industrial
relations across the aviation industry. Heathrow was narrowly spared a strike
by more than 10,000 British Airways BAY.L staff in August which would have
hurt earnings.
Shares in BAA closed on Monday at 573-1/2 pence. The stock has risen 2.7
percent in the past three months compared to a 6.0 percent gain in the
broader market .FTSE
BAA said construction of a fifth terminal at Heathrow, due to open in 2008,
remained on budget and ahead of schedule.
