Heatwave cools travel firm’s bookings
Tanya Airey, managing director of Sunway Travel, was commenting yesterday on 2012 financial results that showed the firm increased profitability in spite of a drop in revenues.
Accounts filed with the Companies Office show the travel firm experienced a marginal increase in profits, rising from €176,247 to €180,997.
The rise in profits came in spite of revenues falling by 7% from €32.3m to €30.12m in the 12 months to the end of December.
Ms Airey said the July heatwave “will obviously have a negative impact on the 2013 performance”.
“Last-minute bookings did not materialise as some holidaymakers preferred to stay in Ireland for the unusually good weather.”
On how the business has fared to date, she said: “Winter season 2012/13 was very busy with good capacity levels. This continued in to Jun 2013 when the good weather started.
“There is a certain percentage of holiday-makers who book last-minute and, with the good weather, this business did not deliver during July-August.”
She added: “The load factor is increasing for the autumn-winter season.”
The figures show remuneration to the four directors of Sunway Travel almost doubled to just under €500,000 last year in spite of a dip in revenues.
The accounts show that remuneration to Ms Airey, Philip Airey, Brian McGovern, and James Furlong increased from €250,929 to €482,056 last year.
The figures show that the numbers employed by the firm last year increased from 41 to 42, with 34 in administration and eight in sales.
Employment costs last year increased from €1.37m to €1.8m.
The figures show that the firm has cash of €6.6m. The firm’s shareholder funds stood at €2.7m.
