Webjet Limited announced that 1H23 bookings are tracking at 95 per cent of pre-pandemic levels and that all three of its divisions have returned to profitability.
The company’s cash surplus from operations is expected to be more than $100m as of 1H23 (the 6-month period ending 30 September 2022) and the group’s MD, John Guscic, highlighted the launch of its recently acquired Trip Ninja technology.
“We are confident it will provide our customers with lower pricing, unique content and greater choice,” Guscic said.
Guscic said that the groups WebBed accommodation business has seen better bookings than pre-pandemic levels since May and in July recorded its biggest month ever for TTV, which is expected to be surpassed in August.
“By driving efficiencies and pivoting our focus to target growth wherever we saw opportunities, we’ve seen our market share grow and EBITDA margins are forecast to be higher than 50 per cent for the first half of FY23,” Guscic added.
“WebBeds has so much opportunity ahead of it…all the things we’ve done to transform the business mean we are confident growth will continue for the remainder of FY23, despite all current well-documented macro headwinds.”
Guscic said that Webjet used the pandemic to re-evaluate its business and strike as travel returned.
“Before COVID hit, Webjet was delivering $157.8million in EBITDA. When travel stopped, we did the hard work necessary to transform our businesses to ensure they would emerge more efficient, more profitable and with higher market share when travel returned. We are now seeing our strategy play out,” Guscic said.
