Travel firm Transat A.T. slashes first-quarter losses as revenue up 20% Canadian Press Wednesday, March 19, 2003 MONTREAL (CP) - Transat A.T. Inc., a major travel company and operator of Air Transat, slashed first-quarter losses as revenue jumped 20 per cent from a year earlier The Montreal-based company (TSX:TRZ) reported Wednesday a loss of $7 million or 24 cents a share for the quarter ended Jan. 31, compared with a loss of $17 million or 52 cents per share in fiscal 2002's first quarter. Revenue climbed to $529.1 million. "The results of the quarter are, as expected, better than the 2002 first-quarter results and reflect our tightened approach to costs and capacity management, which made a big difference over the last 18 months," CEO Jean-Marc Eustache said in a release. "Historically, the first quarter has always been weaker for seasonality reasons. Our Canadian operations had a very successful quarter while in France, Look Voyages continued to struggle." Eustache said the Iraq conflict and difficult economic conditions in France still present "significant challenges. We remain committed to managing very conservatively and to actively pursuing organizational and operational initiatives that will have a positive impact on the bottom line." The revenue increase was attributed mostly to an overall increase in travellers, as well as price increases in Canada and Europe. In Canada, revenue increased by 17.7 per cent to $417.3 million with a 13.6 per cent increase in the number of travellers. In Europe, revenue rose 27.7 per cent to $111.7 million, due mostly to a 15.1 per cent increase in the number of travellers and to the favourable impact of currency exchange rates. "Despite an encouraging performance in the first quarter, we continue to be cautious about future quarters and continue to expect 2003 to be a very challenging year," the company said. "The geopolitical situation continues to significantly affect tourism, especially since the beginning of 2003." On the Toronto stock market Tuesday, Transat shares fell 26 cents to $5.63. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.thehummingbirdonline.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************