8 Sep 2016 07:00
8 September 2016
Dart Group PLC ("the Group")
Annual General Meeting Statement and Announcement of New UK Base
At the Company's Annual General Meeting later today, Philip Meeson, Group Chairman and Chief Executive, will make the following statement:
"The good start to the financial year as reported in our Preliminary Results Statement of 14 July 2016 has continued, with summer Leisure Travel bookings showing no signs of slowdown. Demand for our higher margin package holiday products continues to grow and as a result the number of package holiday customers, as a proportion of total departing customers, is also increasing. Though airline ticket yields and load factors are slightly lower than those achieved in summer 2015, this is against a backdrop of a 13% increase in seat capacity. Leisure Travel bookings for winter 2016/17 are satisfactory at this early stage.
Continued encouraging progress is being made at Fowler Welch, our Distribution & Logistics business, which is currently trading in line with expectations.
The Board is also pleased to announce London Stansted Airport as our ninth UK base. We expect to welcome customers on board our holiday flights from this new base in spring 2017. We believe that London Stansted has great potential for our holiday business, serving the populations of North and East London and the East of England.
In view of the significant investment which will be committed in the second half of this financial year to launch our London Stansted and recently announced Birmingham Airport bases, it is likely that Group operating profit will be slightly behind current market expectations despite the good trading performance achieved in the year to date."
The Group will provide a further update when it announces its interim results for the six months ending 30 September 2016 on 17 November 2016.
For further information contact:
Dart Group PLC Philip Meeson, Group Chairman and Chief Executive | Tel: 0113 239 7817 |
Gary Brown, Group Chief Financial Officer | |
Smith & Williamson Corporate Finance Limited Nominated Adviser David Jones | Tel: 020 7131 4000 |
Canaccord Genuity - Joint Broker Bruce Garrow | Tel: 020 7523 8000 |
Arden Partners - Joint Broker Christopher Hardie | Tel: 020 7614 5900 |
Buchanan - Financial PR Richard Oldworth | Tel: 020 7466 5000 |
Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this announcement.