Regional airline Eastern Airways has reported an oil and gas industry boost to its business after annual profits rocketed to £16.5million – from just £55,000 the year before.
Eastern – whose operations include flights from Aberdeen to Norwegian energy hub Stavanger and 10 UK destinations – said the surge in pre-tax profits last year came despite revenue falling to £95.25million, from £97.01million in 2011.
Operating profits for the latest period came in at £17.78million, up from £1.52million previously.
Eastern has its headquarters at Humberside Airport, in Yorkshire, but operates more flights from Aberdeen than anywhere else, including its home base.
The network has been built up largely around the UK oil and gas industry, although Eastern also operates in France.
UK airports served by the carrier from Aberdeen include Stornoway, Wick John O’Groats, Newcastle Durham Tees Valley, Humberside, Norwich, Leeds/Bradford, East Midlands, Cardiff and Southampton.
In its latest accounts, released by Companies House yesterday, Eastern Airways International said: “Results for the year were strong, with turnover and underlying profits increased on the prior year, benefiting from consolidation of the route changes made in the prior year together with a strong oil and gas sector.”
Oil prices continued to be a risk but the airline’s fuel-efficient turbo-prop aircraft were keeping costs down and giving Eastern a competitive advantage over industry rivals, the group added.
The 2011 route changes included Eastern scrapping its service between Aberdeen and Liverpool.
Eastern was founded in 1997 by Richard Lake, now chief executive, stepping in to save a service from Aberdeen to Humberside after Netherlands-based KLM withdrew from the route.
The company is jointly owned by Mr Lake and chairman Brian Huxford.
It employed 741 people on average during 2012, which was up from 586 the year before.
Separate accounts for subsidiary Eastern Airways (UK) showed pre-tax profits of £3.21million last year, down from £3.47million in 2011. Revenue at the UK business in the latest period totalled £74.87million, up from £72.71million previously.