The struggling Icelandic airline Icelandair has released its latest results showing that the number of passengers on international flights was around 427,000 in last month, an increase of just 1% when compared to September last year.
The capacity measured in available seat kilometres (ASK) increased by 3%. The load factor was 81.0% compared to 81.1% in September last year. In September the trend was similar as in recent months. Sales to destinations in North-America has not been in line with increased capacity while sales to Europe have been strong. Load factors on Icelandair´s routes in Europe were 84.9%, an increase of 5.4 percentage points from last year while load factors to North America were 78.7%, a decrease of 3.4 percentage points from last year.
The number of passengers on domestic and regional flights were just short of 29 thousand, decreasing by 15% compared to September last year. Flights to Belfast, Aberdeen and between Keflavik and Akureyri stopped mid of May, explaining the reduction in the number of passengers. The load factor was 70.5% increasing by 0.2 ppt. Sold block hours in charter flights increased by 18% between years. Freight increased by 9%. The number of available room nights at the Company’s Hotels was up by 20% from last year. The room occupancy was 93.7% compared to 90.9% in September 2017. The occupancy increased betweeen years in all of the hotels.
The airline's board has recently gone cap in hand to investors seeking more money for the company amid increased competition and high fuel costs which are having a negative effect on the companies financial position.
(Photo Icelandair)
