The Australian airline, Regional Express Group, has announced a statutory Profit Before Tax (PBT) of $13.8 million on a turnover of $151 million for the first half of the financial year 2018 (1H FY18).
The airline reported that this represented a 60% improvement on its PBT compared to the prior period.
Rex executive chairman Lim Kim Hai, said the 1H FY18 passenger numbers registered an improvement of 3.6% over the prior period continuing a trend observed in FY17. Hai added that charter activity also increased, “Indicating that the worldwide economic recovery is having its effect in Australia.”
“The Board believes that 2H FY18 will also see improvement over the prior period although not by such a spectacular amount,” Hai said. “Over the full FY, we believe that the overall results should show an improvement of over 20% compared to the prior year.”
Hai continued: “With the economic recovery firmly in place, the Rex Board has approved for the first time ever an interim dividend of four cents per share (fully franked). The Board is committed to a healthy dividend pay-out ratio and if the company achieves its full year earnings forecast then the Board believes that the total dividend pay-out for the FY should at least match that of the prior FY.”
The regional airline has also won a tender to operate the Regular Public Transport (RPT) air services on the Perth-Carnarvon/Monkey Mia route, where Rex will have the sole right to operate on the route for a five-year term commencing on 2 July 2018.
Rex will operate 24 weekly services between Perth and Carnarvon and 12 weekly services between Perth and Monkey Mia. This is a 20% increase in flight frequency for Carnarvon and a 50% increase in flight frequency for Monkey Mia in comparison to the current flight frequency.
