Skywest has recorded a net profit after tax of S$7m (A$5.8m) for the six months ending December 31 2009, marking a major turnaround from a loss of S$2.8m (A$2.2m) for the comparable half year.
The profit came on the back of a 10 per cent increase in revenue to S$107m (A$87m), and was boosted by an increase in resource charter work, which now accounts for approximately 60 per cent of the company’s revenue. This helped to offset a decrease in passenger traffic on its scheduled services of 6.6 per cent, although capacity cuts in these services saw load factor increase by 2.78 percentage points to 55.7 per cent.
The airline says that it is continuing to target the resource industry to drive its growth forward, and is also looking at growing its scheduled services. It has foreshadowed plans to introduce Airbus A320s into its fleet to complement is existing Fokker 50s and 100s, and has also floated possible routes from the North West to the East Coast to meet demand from resource clients.
