Icelandair posts $89m 2016 net profit

Icelandair Group reported a 2016 net profit of $89.1m, down 20% from $111.2m in net income for 2015. Revenue for the year increased 12.8% to $1.3b from $1.1b in 2015. EBITDA fell 3% to $219.8m. Icelandair reported total international passenger numbers of 3.7m in 2016, up 19.5% from 2015. International traffic was up 21.7% to 11.2b RPKs; international capacity increased 23.2% year-over-year to 13.7b ASKs, producing an international passenger load factor of 82.2%, down 1 point from 2015. Regional flight passengers for the year totaled 322,700, up 8.9% from 2015. Load factor for the year on regional flights was 69.3%, down 5.1 points from 2015. Passenger numbers climbed 15% from 2.26m in 2013 to a record 2.6m in 2014. Load factor was up 1.1% to 80.4%. The increase in passenger numbers was greatest on the tourist market to Iceland, a 23% rise year-over-year, accounting for 38% of total passenger numbers in 2016. On the Europe-North America service via Iceland, which at 50% is the company’s largest market, passenger numbers were up 22% in 2016. “The results for the year are the second best in the company’s 80-year history, and on the whole operations were successful over the year in challenging conditions,” Icelandair president and CEO Björgólfur Jóhannsson said. But Jóhannsson cautioned about a recent turn of events that could make 2017 a troubling year.<br/>