The Jungfrau Railway Group can look back on a pleasing course of business in the first semester of 2015. The company achieved an operating revenue of CHF 86.4 million, an in-crease of CHF 6.9 million, or 8.7%, compared to the previous year. The increase in revenue was largely due to more traffic income, which rose by CHF 6.4 million compared to the same period in 2014. A profit of 14.6 million francs was achieved in the first half-year.

Excursion traffic to the Jungfraujoch - Top of Europe continues to benefit from the rising demand from Asia. Some 424,600 visitors travelled to the Jungfraujoch in the first half of 2015, an increase of 69,700 on last year. The fact that the company has continued to intensively cultivate the Asian market and strengthen the Jungfraujoch - Top of Europe brand is clearly bearing fruit.

Overall, the experience mountains segment of the Jungfrau Railway Group started the summer season on a positive note. The daily evening trips made by the Harder Railway have paid off and led to a significant increase in visitor numbers compared to the same period last year.

After a difficult start to the 2014/2015 winter season caused by unfavourable weather conditions, the result for the period under review also sank to below the average from January to the end of the 2015 season. Despite good snow conditions, declining numbers were recorded for both day-visitors and holiday guests. From 1 January 2015 to the end of the winter season, the JUNGFRAU Ski Region, in which the Jungfrau Railway Group holds a 60% revenue share, recorded 839,400 skier visits, a reduction of 3.3%. The resultant traffic revenue from the winter-sport business for the Jungfrau Railway Group was CHF 17.2 million, a reduction of 2.7%. This result is considerably below the good winter-sport years.

In the first semester of 2015, the Jungfrau Railway Group achieved a profit of CHF 14.6 million, a half-year result of 24.8% above that of the previous year. The company recorded an operative result (EBIT) of CHF 19.3 million and achieved an EBIT margin of 22.3%.

The revoking of the euro minimum level of CHF 1.20 only marginally affected our company in the first half of 2015. Although the marked drop in holiday visitors from the euro area during recent years has accelerated, this has been compensated by the increase in visitors from Asia and the Middle East.

Visitor frequencies

2015

2014

Change

1/1-30/6

Jungfraujoch (Top of)

424,600

354,900

19.6%

JUNGFRAU Ski Region skier visits

839,400

868,100

-3.3%

Traffic revenue (CHF in
thousands)

Jungfraujoch-Top of Europe

47,081

39,799

18.3%

Mountain Experiences

3,787

3,539

7.0%

Winter sport

17,226

17,699

-2.7%

Freight traffic

812

843

-3.7%

Total gross traffic earnings

68,906

61,880

11.4%

Reductions in revenue

-3,532

-2,877

22.8%

Total

65,374

59,003

10.8%

Prospects
The positive trend shown by our main pillar of income - excursion traffic to the Jungfraujoch - has continued at the beginning of the second half of 2015. In July and August, the Jungfrau Railway has virtually constantly reached its capacity limit. Thanks to the sustained and wonderfully warm summer weather many individual guests also travelled to the Top of Europe. Based on the excellent level of bookings, the Jungfrau Railway Group is confident that the success of previous years will continue. In the experience mountains segment, visitor numbers in July and August were also well above those of last year and the five-year average. The Jungfrau Railway Group is hoping for an early start to the 2015/2016 winter season. We anticipate a further drop in the number of winter holiday guests owing to the strong Swiss franc.

erstellt 09.09.2015
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