Strikes and fuel adversely affect TAP's first half year
16-Aug-2012 In spite of an improvement in all operating indicators Strikes and fuel prices prevented TAP-SA from improving its figures for the first six months of this year. It ended with a net loss of 112 million euros, which was 14.6% higher than in the same period last year.
TAP's operations are highly seasonal and a considerable improvement is expected in the second half of the year.
Industrial action in the sector, which had an estimated direct impact of 21.6 million euros, made a decisive contribution to this result, although TAP managed to increase revenue to 1.084 billion euros, 9.3% more than the first half of 2011. For the first time, it exceeded the "psychological barrier" of one billion euros in the period.
There was a significant recovery of around 31.2% at Manutenção e Engenharia do Brasil, with losses falling from 30.1 million in the first half of last year to 20.7 million euros at the end of June 2012.
At Groundforce, which was sold at the end of the period, the first six months ended with losses of 2.3 million euros. This represented a 68.8% recovery against the 7.3 million loss in the same period in 2011 and indicated the possibility of achieving the first profits before the end of 2012.
The company's fuel bill rose 20% from 325 million up to the end of June to 390 million in the first six months of this year. This contributed substantially to the general increase in operating costs.
Confirming an improvement in operating performance, TAP carried 4,706,048 passengers from January to June 2012, 4.7% more than in the first six months of 2011. Its market share at Portuguese airports went up to 41.7%.
At Lisbon Airport alone, growth was 6%, almost double the 3.7% increase of the airport itself, where TAP accounts for 60% of total traffic.