Vueling doubles its profit to €7.7 million in the second quarter

Barcelona (ACN). – Vueling, the European airline based in Barcelona, has finished the second quarter of 2012 with a net profit of €7.7 million. This figure represents a 115% increase over the airline’s profit of €3.5 million during the same period in 2011, according to the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV), which monitors the Spanish stock markets. Vueling’s operating profit tripled to €12.1 compared with the same period in 2011. The company has also seen an increase in the number of passengers by 18.5%, transporting 3.9 million people between April and June. In Barcelona El Prat Airport, the company doubled the volume of passengers to 387,000. In addition, the Catalan airline’s aircrafts had an average occupation rate of 75.5%, 2.3 percentage points more than a year ago. Compared with the second quarter of 2011, the company has increased the number of aircrafts from 45 to 54. In addition it has also increased the number of flights from 25,147 to 29,231, a 16.2% increase.

The company’s total income was €296.9 million, 29.2% more than the second quarter of 2011. Regarding expenditure, fuel costs have increased by 34.5% to €93 million due to the increased activity of the airline and the rising cost of raw materials. Without taking fuel costs into account, Vueling managed to reduce the cost per unit by 0.3%.

Between April and June, Vueling had 3,883,921 passengers recording an increase of 18.5% over the same period in 2011. The airline has linked the growth to higher commercial activity and flights’ occupation rate. Compared with the second quarter of 2011, the company has increased the number of aircrafts from 45 to 54. In addition it has also increased the number of flights from 25,147 to 29,231, a 16.2% increase.

As a whole, the Spanish market saw a decrease of 2% in the number of passengers, the largest drop being in domestic flights (-11%). However in the second quarter Vueling saw an overall increase of 18.5% with 452,000 more international passengers and 154,000 more domestic passengers compared with the same period in 2011.

One of the main reasons for this increase in passengers is linked to coverage of the routes and the market share left open by the bankruptcy of Spanair, a now defunct airline based in Barcelona El Prat Airport. As a result, Vueling has doubled the number of passengers to 387,000 people at this airport.