Falling passenger numbers have prompted Regional Express (Rex) to issue a profit downgrade less than a month before handing down its 2014/15 full year financial results.
In a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange on Friday, Rex said its profit outlook for the 12 months to June 30 2015 had been revised to “moderately negative for the Rex Group for the full financial year”.
“The airline continued to see deteriorating passenger numbers for the full year, albeit at a much lower pace than the two prior years, which was contrary to original expectations of a bottoming out of the decline in passenger numbers,” Rex said.
Previously, Rex had said it expected full year profit for 2014/15 to be “moderately positive for the Rex Group for the full financial year”.
Regional aviation has been hit in recent times with the slowdown in mining construction and sluggish consumer confidence, which has affected both charter and fly-in/fly-out operations and demand on marginal regular public transport routes to many country cities and towns.
The airline group was due to hand down its 2014/15 financial results on August 28.
Rex posted net profit of $7.725 million in 2013/14, which was down 44.9 per cent from the prior corresponding period.
