Pre Close Trading Update

TBI PLC 06 April 2004 TBI plc ('TBI' or 'the Group') Pre-Close Trading Update and Quarterly Traffic Statistics The Board of TBI confirms that trading for the second half of the year has been in line with expectations as low-cost travel to domestic and European destinations continues to grow. During the six months to 31 March 2004, the Group has continued to attract additional low-cost traffic. In November 2003 London Luton Airport ('Luton') became the first destination to be served out of easyJet's new Schonefeld base in Berlin, followed in February 2004 by the announcement of a new route to Budapest International. In addition, the Group awarded the mandate to manage its car park operations at Luton, together with the bus shuttle service between Luton Airport Parkway railway station and the terminal at Luton, to NCP. The five year contract commenced 1 April 2004. Looking ahead, WIZZ Air will commence a new route to Katowice in Poland in May and easyJet will begin services to Dortmund in September, both of which will be served out of Luton. Elsewhere, Belfast, Cardiff and Skavsta have all continued to benefit from growth in low-cost activity. In March, easyJet announced the further expansion of its operations out of Belfast International (BIA) with the launch of new direct scheduled services to four key European destinations in France and Spain, plus an additional daily London Gatwick service, bringing the total destinations served by easyJet from BIA to 13. This comes on top of the announcement by Jet2 of two new services to be commenced to Prague and Brussels. BIA continues to work closely with both Air Route Development (NI) Ltd and easyJet and we look forward to announcing further major developments in the near future. At Skavsta, work on the new terminal building has been completed with full commercial operation scheduled to begin later this month. Traffic continues to grow rapidly at Skavsta underpinned by Ryanair's base operation at this location, which was bolstered in January with the addition of two new daily routes to Rome and Milan. Cardiff continues to benefit from the success of bmibaby. Outside Europe, Orlando Sanford continues to see a recovery in domestic traffic which will be further boosted this month when Vacation Express returns its Caribbean hub operations to this airport. Under the seven year agreement, flights will operate three days a week to 11 Caribbean destinations. TBI's Preliminary Results for the year ended 31 March 2004 will be announced on 10 June 2004. 6 April 2004 Enquiries: TBI plc 020 7408 7300 Keith Brooks, Chief Executive Caroline Price, Finance Director College Hill 020 7457 2020 Justine Warren Crawford Burden FOURTH QUARTER TRAFFIC STATISTICS Passenger numbers ('000s): 1 January 2004 - 31 March 2004 Luton Belfast Cardiff Skavsta Total Full service 140.2 1.0 49.9 0.0 191.1 -1.48% -97.81% 4.18% na -18.99% Low cost 1255.1 772.5 165.7 259.1 2452.4 5.34% 11.15% 28.25% 214.82% 16.89% Charter 115.0 96.0 127.6 0.0 338.6 26.10% 19.70% -0.78% na 12.87% Total 1510.3 869.5 343.2 259.1 2982.1 5.99% 5.92% 12.27% 214.82% 13.22% Passenger numbers ('000s): 1 January 2003 - 31 March 2003 Luton Belfast Cardiff Skavsta Total Full service 142.3 45.7 47.9 0.0 235.9 Low cost 1191.5 695.0 129.2 82.3 2098.0 Charter 91.2 80.2 128.6 0.0 300.0 Total 1425.0 820.9 305.7 82.3 2633.9 Note to Editors: TBI's European airports comprise: London Luton, Belfast International, Cardiff International and Stockholm-Skavsta Percentage changes shown are comparisons with the same period in 2003 TBI's four European airports handled a total of 3 million passengers during the period from 1 January to 31 March 2004, an increase of 13.2% over the corresponding period last year (2003: 2.6 million). For the six months to March, passenger numbers rose by 15% to 6.1 million. Once again, low-cost traffic continued to drive growth across the portfolio increasing by 17% to 2.5 million passengers, while full service fell 19% and charter increased 13%. The growth in low-cost was principally driven out of Cardiff and Skavsta, which increased passenger numbers by 28% and 215% respectively as a result of the growth in operations by bmibaby (Cardiff) and Ryanair (Skavsta). APPENDIX Passenger numbers ('000s): 1 October 2003 - 31 December 2003 Luton Belfast Cardiff Skavsta Total Full service 157.6 1.1 49.4 0.0 208.1 12.25% -98.65% -19.02% na -26.44% Low cost 1254.4 785.4 167.6 292.9 2500.3 5.11% 26.27% 92.42% 251.20% 25.90% Charter 162.9 129.8 168.6 0.2 461.5 -7.71% 21.08% -3.93% na 0.50% Total 1574.9 916.3 385.6 293.1 3169.9 4.28% 13.03% 19.16% 251.41% 16.20% Passenger numbers ('000s): 1 October 2002 - 31 December 2002 Luton Belfast Cardiff Skavsta Total Full service 140.4 81.5 61.0 0.0 282.9 Low cost 1193.4 622.0 87.1 83.4 1985.9 Charter 176.5 107.2 175.5 0.0 459.2 Total 1510.3 810.7 323.6 83.4 2728.0 Passenger numbers ('000s): Six months to 31 March 2004 Luton Belfast Cardiff Skavsta Total Full service 297.8 2.1 99.3 0.0 399.2 5.34% -98.35% -8.82% na -23.05% Low cost 2509.5 1557.9 333.3 552.0 4952.7 5.22% 18.29% 54.09% 233.13% 21.27% Charter 277.9 225.7 296.2 0.2 800.0 3.81% 20.44% -2.60% na 5.37% Total 3085.2 1785.7 728.8 552.2 6151.9 5.11% 9.44% 15.81% 233.31% 14.73% Passenger numbers ('000s): Six months to 31 March 2003 Luton Belfast Cardiff Skavsta Total Full service 282.7 127.2 108.9 0.0 518.8 Low cost 2384.9 1317.0 216.3 165.7 4083.9 Charter 267.7 187.4 304.1 0.0 759.2 Total 2935.3 1631.6 629.3 165.7 5361.9 Passenger numbers ('000s) - Year ended 31 March 2004 Luton Belfast Cardiff Skavsta Total Full service 697.6 5.4 201.2 0.0 904.2 17.80% -98.48% -20.35% -100.00% -25.29% Low cost 5272.8 3133.2 758.4 1140.3 10304.7 6.52% 21.02% 197.06% 255.23% 26.98% Charter 925.8 867.6 983.8 0.9 2778.08 -10.39% 19.74% -2.26% 119.25% 0.49% Total 6896.2 4006.2 1943.4 1141.2 13987.0 4.88% 9.20% 28.33% 244.77% 15.69% Passenger numbers ('000s) - Year ended 31 March 2003 Luton Belfast Cardiff Skavsta Total Full service 592.2 355.1 252.6 10.3 1210.2 Low cost 4949.9 2589.1 255.3 321.0 8115.3 Charter 1033.1 724.6 1006.5 0.4 2764.6 Total 6575.2 3668.8 1514.4 331.0 12090.1 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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