Airport reports losses but increases turnover
Turnover at a Yorkshire airport rose 8% to £31m in the last financial year but the company still made a loss of £5.9m, newly-released figures have revealed.
During the financial year to March 2017, Leeds Bradford Airport also saw passenger numbers increase from 3.4m to 3.6m. Losses at LBA stood at £5.9m – a drop from £8.6m in the previous year. However, statutory EBITDA was up 4% on the year before, showing improved operating performance.
In April, the company refinanced for £89m and put in place a £53m five year strategy and £36m shareholder loan. This was after a buy-back deal of a mezzanine facility which took place in June 2016.
The airport, owned by Bridgepoint, brought security in-house resulting in higher staffing costs and also invested in terminal facilities. There were one-off items totalling £263,000.
The report said that key capital investments during the year included the expansion of commercial and operational space, the start of upgrades to the airfield lighting and development of a car rental village. An extra baggage scanner was also installed in security.
Currently, the terminal has the capacity to handle 4m passengers and the airport is projected to carry around 7m by 2030 as part of its Route to 2030 Masterplan which seeks to deliver better surface access to the airport among other items including enhancing customer service.
“There is strong support politically to improve surface access to LBA, which has been recognised as a priority at a national and local level,” said the report.
Development work is currently ongoing to increase the footprint of the departure lounge by around 1,000 sq metres to cater for demand in the medium-term.
Turnover increased due to the strong passenger growth delivered through the airlines operating to and from LBA, with Jet.com and Ryanair increasing routes available and several new destinations added to the schedules.
The report said: “Growth was particularly strong in food and beverage and LBA’s in-house advertising function, whilst in car park revenue LBA delivered further improvements in premium car park revenue streams.”
Bridgepoint has owned LBA since 2007. David Laws was appointed CEO at LBA earlier this year, replacing John Parkin.
