UK leisure carrier Jet2’s parent company Dart Group has concluded from a modelling exercise that it would have “sufficient liquidity” for a scenario in which no flights could be operated until August of next year.
Amid “uncertainty” over how the Covid-19 pandemic might affect its business in the coming months, Dart Group says it modelled a “no-fly scenario through to 1 August 2021 to assess the liquidity position over the entire going-concern period of at least 12 months” from the signing of its annual report, released on 11 August.
“The directors concluded that given the combination of a closing cash balance of £1,387.5 million [$1.82 billion] at 31 March 2020, together with the additional actions taken to increase liquidity since the year end and the forecast monthly cash utilisation, the group would have sufficient liquidity throughout this period,” says the company in its report.
It adds that directors “have a reasonable expectation that the group as a whole has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for a period of 12 months from the date of approval of the financial statements”.
Dart reported in July that its pre-tax profit from continuing operations for the year ended 31 March, after a £108 million charge related to hedge ineffectiveness, was down 11% at £148 million.
Since then the company has accessed a £300 million loan from the UK government’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility and raised £172 million in fresh capital through a share placing. It also completed the sale of its distribution and logistics business, Fowler Welch, for £98 million.
