Alliance Aviation H1 results hit by E190 ramp up costs

Australia’s Alliance Aviation saw revenue climb 11% to A$170.1m ($122m) in the first half of its 2022 financial year, but costs associated with fleet growth resulted in it swinging to a loss. The carrier says its strong topline performance reflects record contract revenue in the six months to 31 December 2021. Contract revenue rose 21% to A$128m during the period. The carrier, however, swung to pre-tax loss of A$4.5m from a pre-tax profit of A$33.6m a year earlier. It also swung to a net loss of A$3.4m from a profit of A$23.4m a year earlier. Alliance attributed the losses to investments in its next phase of growth, which includes the full deployment of its Embraer E190 fleet. It calls the E190 integration a “step change for the group from both an operational and financial perspective.” During the last six months of 2021, Alliance paid for the final six of 32 E190s, eight E190s joined the fleet, and it took on E190 costs for 78 pilots, 77 cabin crew, 36 engineers, and 25 corporate staff. This resulted in its reporting a statutory loss. This aside, it says, the underlying result is a pre-tax profit of $20.7m.<br/>