Tyumenaviatrans shows top line declines ahead of release of 1st April figures for 1999

Published: 3/10/2000

Tyumenaviatrans suffered a 19% decline in passengers carried to 510,928 in 1999, which the company blamed on the poor condition of the aviation market. The company said that this general factor along with bad debts from private and government customers combined with the continuing deterioration of their fleet and buildings contributed to poor operating figures The majority of the Surgut-based carrier's revenues are derived from domestic operations in rubles. With hard currency activity such as the leasing of its helicopters to UN, representing a 10% of the company's business according to TAT. Another major portion of revenues comes from passenger transportation. Other areas of business such as airports and cargo transportation represented a minor share of the airline's revenue according to the company. During 1999, TAT as with many other operators in Russia's north suffered form the general weakness of the economy and declining activity for regional industries particularly the oil industry. The 1999 fall follows a decline in volume in 1998, which when linked with the inability of many of their customers to pay has led to heavy losses. On the positive side, the figures do appear to be slightly improved from the first half, when passenger numbers were down by 43% year on year. The company's load factors in the latter part of the year also improved from their mid-year 62.6% seat load factor. The average seat load factor was 66.4% for the whole 1999 or 12.4% higher than a year ago. We believe that the decline in revenues is explained by the fact that the dollar denominated overseas revenues did not grow fast enough, even with the devaluation, to compensate for the weakness of the domestic market in volume and pricing. The company has not released full financial data for the period, but it is due to announce full 1999 results on 1st April.

Article ID: 1665