LONDON (Alliance News) - Gama Aviation PLC on Thursday reported a flat performance in the first half of its current financial year as trading conditions in Europe were challenging, while the US saw a strong growth.
The aviation services provider said its EU air division was stable during the period and despite challenging market conditions the company expects the stable performance to continue in the second half.
In the US, Gama's air division continued to deliver strong organic growth, it said, boosted by the continuing development of the Wheels Up contract. Gama is the exclusive operator of the Wheels Up King Air 350i and Citation Excel / XLS programme that allows its members access to a private fleet of Citation Excel/XLS aircraft.
Meanwhile, the Middle East and Asia air divisions continued to make steady and encouraging progress in scaling up their operations, the company said.
Turning to the ground units, performance in the EU was mixed. Gama said it picked up orders in base maintenance & design during the period, which it expects to complete in the second half of the year to deliver "decent" growth for the full-year.
Gama also said it is progressing well on its divisional move to Bournemouth International Airport in the south of England and remains on track to move its jet maintenance operations to the new base in October, as planned, from Farnborough. The company believes that the move will allow the division to double its engineering capacity, improve operational efficiency and flexibility and extend its service offering.
The US ground division delivered strong organic growth during the period, the company said, with new clients continuing to be attracted to its line maintenance centres. The division is expected to continue to deliver strong growth for the full-year.
The Middle East ground unit had a weak start to the year. In Hong Kong, Gama's collaboration with China Aircraft Services Ltd is scaling up its activities, and the division is expected to make a positive contribution to the full-year.
The contract was signed in January last year and under the deal, Gama works with CASL to provide a full range of business jet maintenance services including line and base maintenance and aircraft-on-ground support at Hong Kong International Airport.
"We have been busy building business capabilities in the US to strengthen our market position in that key market, and have progressed our plans to scale up our Middle East and Asia operations," said Chief Executive Marwan Khalek.
"Despite some challenges in Europe during the first half, we have been winning new contracts and orders in the ground division which gives us confidence in the outlook for our full year results," continued Khalek.
"We are confident that we will deliver on our full-year expectations and future growth plans consistent with our strategic objectives," added Khalek.
Shares in Gama Aviation were trading 2.5% lower on Thursday at 195.00 pence each.
