On Friday, the Luxair Group held a press conference at the Maintenance Hangar at Lux-Airport to announce its results for 2016.

Paul Helminger, Chairman of the Luxair Group, confirmed a continued growth, with the passenger airline carrying 64% of passengers through Lux-Airport last year. The groupd employs 2,800 people directly and 3,000 indirectly, with 209 new staff joining in collaboration with ADEM.

Luxair Group is split into 4 different business units: Luxair Luxembourg Airlines (passenger airline), LuxairTours (tour operator), LuxairServices (ground services, meals, etc.) and LuxairCARGO (air freight).

He described last year as a challenging year in a challenging environment, with factors including slow economic growth in France and Belgium, terrorist attacks in Europe and Northern Africa, political turmoil in the Arab-Muslim world including Turkey, increased competition  in all LuxairGroup activities, and fluctuating exchange rates. Despite this, passenger numbers grew 1% while cargo tonnage rose by 8%, resulting in an operational result of €1.3 million, based on a turnover of €497.9 million.

Adrien Ney, CEO, explained that, while Luxair airline lost €8.8 million (2015 saw a loss of €3.6 million), LuxairTours made a profit of €2.2 million, LuxairCARGO made a profit of €2.6 million, and LuxairServices made a profit of €5.2 million.

Luxair airline increased capacity last year by 7% with a stable load factpr of 65% on average.

2017 is expected to be another difficult year for the airline with potentially a significant impact due to Brexit, uncertain evolution for business traffic and increased competition from other airlines flying in and out of Luxembourg airport. Nevertheless, 2017 year-to-date has witnessed a growth in passenger numbers of 5% (Jan-May), with a 7% target for the whole year.

LuxairTours had mixed results in 2016, with sales collapsing in Turkey and Tunisia and massive price increases in Spanish destinations. LuxairTours are now offering flight-only deals.

- Turkey: fall from 48,500 in 2014 to 11,800 in 2016;

- Tunisia: fall from 75,000 in 2012 to 19,000 in 2016 (2017 estimates are 34,000)

- Canary Islands: increase from 104,000 in 2014 to 122,000 in 2016

- Palma de Mallorca: increase from 66,300 in 2012 to 98,000 in 2016

The tour operator flew 619,836 passengers in 2016, up 2% from 2015. Direct sales increased 29% and flight-only sales grew 18%.

Luxair Services, meanwhile, handled 1.8 million passsengers last year, out of the total 3 million.

Interestingly, the cost of a new Bombardier Q400 turbo-prop plane is €23 million, whiel the cost of a new Boeing 737-800 is €52 million. The Luxair Group is to invest €20 million in a new hangar as the current one is out-dated. Concerning its fleet strategy, it plans to carry out a new review at the end of 2018

Photo (L-R): Alberto Kunkel; Laurent Josart; Paul Helminger (Chairman); Adrien Ney (CEO), Martin Isler; Marc Schroeder