FLYGLOBESPAN, the Edinburgh-based no-frills airline, has won its second contract from the Ministry of Defence and announced it is set to return to profitability.
The company recently started operating a Falklands service from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire for the MoD, and has now agreed a separate five-month leasing arrangement with the MoD that will see a Flyglobespan 767 fly from the RAF base to Qatar.
The contract, which runs from December, is expected to bring in more than £40 million.
The firm also revealed it had returned to the black in the 12 months to October 31 following a £13m loss in the previous year.
Its profit figure for the year is thought to be in the region of £1m – and it is predicting higher profits in the current year.
Flyglobespan said the MoD contract increased the latest full year's turnover from winter leasing to slightly more than £40m – 60 per cent more than the previous year.
Chairman Tom Dalrymple said: "We are absolutely delighted with the latest leasing contracts. These will have a hugely positive impact at a traditionally lean time and leave us much more strongly positioned as summer approaches."
The losses of 2006/07 followed problems with planes on the firm's Canadian routes, as well as investment in new aircraft and rising fuel prices.
The full article contains 226 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
