Icelandair lowers full-year guidance again; CEO resigns

Icelandair president & CEO Björgólfur Jóhannsson resigned Aug. 27 as the group further lowered its EBITDA guidance for 2018 to $80-$100m, down by about 50% since the beginning of the year. The Icelandic company was originally expecting a $170-$190m full-year EBITDA, but on July 10 lowered the guidance to $120-$140m. Jóhannsson said the updated forecast is “mainly based on the fact that the company’s revenue will be lower than anticipated.” Icelandair is still expected to increase average fares during the final months of the year. “Now, we expect the average fare increase to occur later, that is not until in 2019,” Jóhannsson said. Structural changes at the company’s sales and marketing department, which were made in the summer of 2017—such as a new fare structure—were not successful enough. In addition, changes in the company’s route network have resulted in an imbalance between Europe flights and North America flights. As a result, Icelandair estimates passenger revenues will be 5%-8% ($50-$80m) lower than expected this year.<br/>