Eurostar, the high-speed rail service between the UK and mainland Europe, has blamed lower profits on the strong pound and the deadly Paris terrorists attacks in November last year.
Nicolas Petrovic, the train operator’s chief executive said the end of the year had been “challenging” as Eurostar announced its full year results on Wednesday.
Underlying operating profits for 2015 dropped to £34 million compared to £55 million the year before, while sales revenues were down 5 per cent at £821 million, hit by a strong pound.
Passenger numbers for the year were stable, with 10.4 million travelling in 2015.
But Petrovic said trading had started to pick up over the first two months of the year and the outlook for the summer remained positive.
“With our new state-of-the-art trains and highly competitive fares to a range of destinations, we expect this trend to gather momentum over the coming months,” he said.
The company said its e320 train, with new on-board entertainment service and wifi connectivity, is now in service on the London to Paris route.
The announcement made no mention of the migrant crisis despite the disruptions caused on the channel tunnel in recent months.
Eurotunnel, the tunnel’s operator, has sent a €29 million (£23 millon) bill to the British and French governments to cover the costs incurred and revenues lost due to the refugee crisis in Calais last year.
The refugee crisis peaked in early October when 200 refugees made it into the Channel tunnel on 3 October.
“The security of the fixed link being the responsibility of the two governments, a claim for €29m has been made via the [Channel Tunnel] Intergovernmental Commission to compensate, essentially, the revenue losses because of migrant pressure,” Eurotunnel said in its full-year profit statement in February this year.
