Revenues at Sunway Travel plummet by €23.17m due to Covid-19 impact

Revenues at Tanya Airey’s Sunway Travel last year plummeted by 70 per cent or €23.17 million due to the Covid-19 shutdown of the travel industry for much of 2020.

Accounts filed by Dublin-based Sunway Travel Ltd show that the company recorded a pre-tax loss of €360,945 in the 12 months to the end of October last.

This follows a pre-tax profit of €254,523 in the prior year.

The company recorded revenues of €33.12 million in the 12 months to the end of October 2019 but revenues dropped to €9.94 million for the year to the end of October last due to the pandemic.

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Pay

The bulk of those revenues would have been generated during the pre-Covid months of November 2019 through to the end of February 2020. The losses would have been much higher but for directors cutting their pay by 74.5 per cent from €401,685 in 2019 to €102,260 last year.

Ms Airey, who has been at the helm since 1998, sits on the board with two other directors, Philip Airey and Brian McGovern.

The company’s profit and loss account also benefited from unspecified “other operating income” of €462,873 last year.

Figures published by Revenue show that Sunway Travel participated in the Government Covid-19 wage subsidy schemes, as have businesses across the travel industry.

A note attached to the accounts said that in response to Covid-19, the directors “have made decisions to protect the company’s business”. It states that the directors are confident that based on these decisions and the company’s underlying financial position there is no material uncertainty concerning the company’s ability to meet its liabilities as they fall due.

Business

The company is 55 years in business and has over 70 destinations worldwide. Ms Airey’s grandfather set up Sunway Travel in 1966 and she started working in the business at 18.

Numbers employed by the company reduced from 59 to 50 as staff costs declined by 39 per cent from €2.4 million to €1.46 million.

The company’s loss for last year takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €164,601. At the end of October last, the company’s shareholder funds totalled €2.38 million. Cash funds reduced from €6.6 million to €4.4 million.

A spokeswoman for the company declined to comment on Friday.