HLO expects no resumption of long-haul travel to US and Europe for 12 months.
Helloworld Travel Limited (HLO) has just issued a trading update, advising that it does not expect material volumes in long-haul international outbound travel to UK/Europe or the USA until late 2021 or early 2022.
A full return to pre-COVID levels is conditional upon a vaccine or cure for COVID-19 having been developed, approved and widely distributed, the company believes.
The update advises that HLO’s TTV for the September quarter was $176.8 million, down almost 91% on the same period last year, with an underlying EBITDA loss of $4.1 million.
The group’s retail networks in Australia and New Zealand had remained largely intact so far, but the company warned that without industry specific assistance or the opening of borders “the liquidity runway for agents is getting shorter”.
Overall HLO’s agent numbers have shrunk by 75 to 2,321, with a number of agencies also having effectively hibernated their businesses until 2021 while others have moved operations to home or shared premises. “While this has resulted in a reduction in outlets, HLO has also seen a number of new members join in Australia over the last six months,” the company said.
Corporate operations in Australia are running at about 40% of prior year TTV, while NZ is trading at 20% of the turnover for the September quarter in 2019.
HLO is currently planning for revenues of 10-15% of previous levels for the December quarter, increasing to 15-20% in the March quarter 2021.
The company said it had sufficient liquidity to maintain operations “well into 2022 or longer” based on its current cash burn rate.
More details in today’s issue of Travel Daily.