Mexican ultra-low-cost carrier Volaris earned $10 million in the second quarter of the year, up from $6 million last year, as the company mitigates the effects of the Pratt & Whitney engine inspection recall.
The Mexico City-based carrier said on 22 July that revenue fell 7% to $726 million, though strong domestic demand and an improvement in total operating revenue per passenger helped the airline. Capacity as measured in available seat miles was 17% lower due to the engine issues. Expenses also fell 10% to $660 million.
“Volaris’ unwavering focus on execution and efficient cost control has enabled us to deliver strong results,” says chief executive Enrique Beltranena. “Our mitigation plan is on track with favourable outcomes, and we have largely achieved our goals since the inspections began.
“With recent updates from Pratt & Whitney, we are cautiously optimistic about this evolving situation, but we recognise that the engine’s time on wing remains a challenge. Looking ahead, as grounded aircraft gradually return to our productive fleet, we expect recent unit revenue levels to remain resilient and remain committed to prudent and rational growth, prioritising profitability,” he adds.
In April, Beltranena had said that he was “sceptical” about “tangible progress” on the inspections, and feared much of the narrowbody fleet would be down longer than anticipated.
“While engine removals to date have gone according to schedule, we are being conservative in our expectations on when engines will return to service,” he said at the time.
Volaris’ load factor rose to 85.5%, up 0.9 percentage points from the same period last year.
The airline ended the quarter with 136 aircraft in its all-Airbus narrowbody fleet, up from 123 airframes in the same three months a year ago.
For the full year 2024, the airline revised its capacity expectations to about 14% decline from last year, compared with a previous 16-18% decline expectation, due to the P&W engine inspections.
