4 Jun 2020 07:00
LEI: 213800JLR6YIRMSCUS98
4 June 2020
AIR PARTNER PLC
("Air Partner", "Company" or "Group")
SHAREHOLDER UPDATE
Air Partner, the global aviation services group, is today providing an update on trading to 31 May 2020. This is the fourth update released during the COVID-19 pandemic and, as previously announced, we anticipate communicating to shareholders approximately every four to six weeks during this time.
Current trading overview
As previously reported, April was a record trading month for the Group. The business has continued to perform well ahead of budget in May. For the first four months of the year, the unaudited management accounts show an expected underlying profit before tax of £7.5m, predominantly driven by high levels of activity in our Freight and Group Charter divisions. The forward order book for June is also strong, with continued demand for Freight and Group Charter services. We are now also seeing some early signs of recovery within Private Jets and Safety & Security.
Group Charter
Group Charter continues to perform well. While our initial crisis activity was emergency evacuations and repatriation work, a large proportion of current demand is for corporate shuttles, as companies in the UK and US seek to safeguard their employees.
Private Jets
Although activity in Private Jets has been weak throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we are now starting to see early signs of recovery. In May, our US Private Jets business had double the level of enquiries for future flight bookings compared to April, and JetCard enquires in Europe have also increased.
Freight
We continue to see strong demand for our Freight services and the team has been busy flying emergency protective personal equipment (PPE) from Asia to the UK, Europe and US. In addition to this emergency activity, we are now beginning to see some recovery in core Freight activity as well.
Safety & Security
As previously outlined, a number of our activities in Safety & Security have been adversely impacted by COVID-19 on account of government restrictions. However, we have recently announced several new contract wins for Redline, and we are seeing a slow emergence of business across some of our other Safety & Security product lines.
Cost management and cash conservation
We have enjoyed a strong start to the financial year, however visibility beyond June remains limited. While we expect crisis work to slow down in H2, we expect this to be replaced by a recovery in activity in our core Freight business, Private Jets and Safety & Security. Nevertheless, there are undoubtedly challenging times still ahead and we continue to monitor the situation extremely closely, while prudently managing costs tightly across the Group to preserve cash and maintain our working capital. At the end of May, the Group has normalised cash in the bank of £16.5m, excluding significant customer deposits and JetCard cash. The Group also has access to a total debt facility of £14.5m, comprising a £13.0m revolving credit facility (RCF) and a £1.5m overdraft. As at 31 May 2020, the Group had drawn down £11.5m of its RCF. The RCF is due to expire in February 2023.
ENDS
Enquiries:
TB Cardew (Financial PR advisor) | 020 7930 0777 |
Tom Allison | 07789 998 020 |
Alycia MacAskill | 07876 222 703 |
Joe McGregor | 07766 231 520 |
About Air Partner:
Founded in 1961, Air Partner is a global aviation services group providing aircraft charter and aviation safety & security solutions to industry, commerce, governments and private individuals, across civil and military organisations. The Group has two divisions: Air Partner Charter, comprising Group Charter, Private Jets, Freight and Specialist Services; and Air Partner Safety & Security (formerly Consulting & Training), which comprises Baines Simmons, Redline Assured Security and Managed Services.
Group Charter charters large airliners to move groups of any size. Private Jets offers the Company's unique pre-paid JetCard scheme and on-demand charter for up to 19 people. Freight charters aircraft of every size to fly almost any cargo anywhere, at any time. Specialist Services comprises Air Partner's other aviation services that complement its Charter business: Remarketing, ACMI, scheduled group travel, tour operations, air evacuation and flight operations.
Baines Simmons offers aviation safety management and fatigue risk management. Redline Assured Security delivers government-standard security training, consultancy and solutions to regulated, high value and high threat environments. Managed Services offers wildlife hazard management and aircraft registry services.
Air Partner has 16 locations across three continents, with its headquarters located alongside Gatwick airport in the UK. The group employs around 450 aviation professionals globally and operates 24/7. Air Partner is listed on the London Stock Exchange (AIR) and is the only publicly listed air charter broker and aviation safety & security consultancy. It is ISO 9001:2015 compliant for commercial airline and private jet solutions worldwide.
More information is available on the company's website (www.airpartner.com).