Chairman’s Statement
Dr Paul Golby CBE
The pandemic has had a very significant impact on our business and we are reporting a pre-tax loss of £37.8m (2020: £25.3m profit) for the year. The volume of flights we handled fell by 73% from pre-pandemic levels resulting in a similar reduction of our cash receipts.
The company and Board responded quickly at the onset of the pandemic and took decisive action to preserve liquidity by significantly reducing our cost base and, suspending all but essential capital investment. We also negotiated an additional two-year bank facility. In June 2021 we secured £1.6bn from new unsecured bonds and bank facilities and are well placed to mitigate the impact of any further restrictions in air travel.
CEO’s Review
Martin Rolfe
Managing the impact of Covid and the uncertainty it created was the defining theme of the last financial year. The actions we have taken to maintain a resilient operation, support our customers, secure our long-term finances and reduce our cost base ensure that we are well placed to support the recovery in air travel.
This is an opportunity to build back better and we play an important role in delivering a more sustainable future alongside the industry. This must be accompanied by a new price control that provides the right level of resources to deliver the operational service, technology change and airspace modernisation.