WEB TRAVEL GROUP LIMITED — Earnings Release 2011

Apr 12, 2011

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13 April 2011

WEBJET STRONG THIRD QUARTER TO 31 MARCH 2011 TTV up 14% to $145M

Webjet today advised guidance results for the third quarter ending 31 March 2011.

		Millions $
NPBT	TY	LY	Change
Aust/NZ	4.1	3.6	14%
Overseas	(0.2)	0	-
Total	3.9	3.6	8%

Rounded, unaudited

Commenting, Webjet Managing Director John Guscic said:

• Our main Australian and New Zealand operations have, despite a difficult discretionary leisure consumer market, performed strongly.

• In addition, our American operation has performed strongly to the extent that one year from commencement it has moved into small profit in the month of March and growth continues strongly.

• Our Asian operations, in Hong Kong and Singapore, which commenced in January and February, are trading in line with expectations.

In terms of key development initiatives:

• Our new hotel project has commenced on schedule.

• The release of the hotel product provides for consumer choice from around 70,000 global hotels. The hotel inventory is not simply last minute left over, consists of deep inventory access, extremely competitive market rates, and as noted in our release of 9 February 2011, is structured in a manner where Webjet incurs no ongoing operating costs apart from marketing expenses.

• Initial results are extremely encouraging.

• The hotel product platform is in the process of rolling out into the United States, Hong Kong and Singapore as part of the conclusion of stage one.

• It is intended that all profit income from the hotel product sales will be directed into aggressive marketing for the balance of this calendar year in order to build maximum traction leading to the release of stage two at the end of 2011.

In terms of Webjet’s overall market footprint, Webjet has won the Hitwise Number One OTA award for all of calendar year 2010 by a substantial margin and has won all weeks so far this year in Australia.

General market conditions

Webjet highlighted a number of general market uncertainties in February 2011 including:

• Queensland and Victorian floods and cyclones.

• Some concerns in relation to consumer discretionary spending.

Commenting, Webjet’s Chairman David Clarke said:

“The Australian consumer market remains acutely bargain sensitive. In broad terms there are a wide range of conflicting economic indicators in the Australian market including a contraction of consumer discretionary spending, a propensity for consumers to act conservatively in relation to mortgage repayments and saving levels with clear indication reported in general media that the impact of the Queensland floods in particular and more recently the calamitous events in Japan has shifted leisure consumer buying patterns.

Conversely employment levels in Australia remain at the high end of the scale although significant threats remain in relation to escalating oil prices and bowser petrol price shock and very particularly utility costs in the Australian market which we expect will impact significantly on discretionary leisure spending for the remainder of this year.

The currently high Australian dollar is to some extent counter balancing the impact of these factors in terms of the price positioning of international travel.

We expect that consumers’ sensitivity to travel bargains will be a key factor in the remainder of this calendar year.”

Guidance

Having regard to the cautious macro economic outlook, but in cognisance of the strong results recorded in the year to date, we are currently confident in confirming market guidance for the full year as previously advised.

Subject to final taxation rates this suggests a net profit after tax of $10.5 million for the full year.

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John Guscic Managing Director Webjet Limited

For further information contact John Guscic on (03) 9828 9754 or David Turner 0414 417 041 Webjet – Australia’s Multi Award Winning Online Travel Service http://www.webjet.com.au/About_us/Awards.html