Air Berlin manages a profit

Air Berlin increased its net profit in the third quarter to EUR95.2 million, an increase of 111% over the same period last year.

Despite a challenging economic environment, its operating profit improved by 33.5% to EUR118 million. Revenue decreased by 8.2% to EUR974 million, due to targeted capacity adjustments based on lower demand.

It is one of the few airlines to improve profit in the third quarter of 2009 claiming the success of its efficiency improvement programme introduced in 2008.

Although passengers decreased slightly to 8.3 million (-4.1%) as a result of the financial and economic crisis, Air Berlin’s capacity adjustments enabled the company to counter the effects of this decrease.

Revenue per passenger kilometer increased from 7.65 to 8.24 Eurocents, an increase of 7.7%. EBITDA (Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and leasing expenses) for the quarter under review reached EUR 228.7 million against EUR209 million of Q3 in 2008.

The financial results have been affected by proceeds from payments on a convertible bond, amounting to approximately EUR20 million. Furthermore, foreign exchange losses were lower than in 2008. As a result, the financial results significantly improved from minus EUR15 million in 2008 to EUR3.2 million.