Thanks to the successful business development, widely supported in all segments, the Jungfrau Railway Group expects a profit of over 40 million francs for the reporting year. The result will be announced on 4 April 2018.
Jungfraujoch – Top of Europe
Excursions to the Jungfraujoch - Top of Europe continued to benefit from the diversification of the markets as well as the significantly stronger demand from Asia compared with 2016. The best results in the history of the Jungfrau Railway could be achieved, both in terms of visitor numbers and transport income. With 1,041,500 visitors, more than a million guests travelled to the Jungfraujoch in the reporting year, for the second time since 2015. After a slower previous year, it was important for the company to once again intensify its active involvement in Asian markets, in order to improve customer satisfaction through quality measures and to further strengthen the Jungfraujoch – Top of Europe brand. The net transport income for the Jungfraujoch segment could be increased compared to the previous year by 14.8 per cent, with CHF 107.2 million.
Experience Mountains
For all Experience Mountains, which include excursion transport to Harder Kulm, First and Winteregg-Mürren, the Jungfrau Railway Group registered record results. With an increase of 21.1 per cent in total, net transport income could once again be significantly increased. The Harder Railway achieved an increase in net transport income of 39.5 per cent. The First Railway booked an increase of 18.3 per cent. The Lauterbrunnen-Mürren mountain railway achieved an 11.6 per cent increase in net transport income. For the Experience Mountains overall, a 2.8 million higher transport income was generated than in the previous year, with 15.9 million francs.
Winter Sports
For the Winter Sports segment, the result of the start of 2017 until the end of the season in spring 2017 was below average. However, thanks to the early snowfall and cold temperatures, Jungfrau Railways was able to start the 2017/2018 winter sports season as early as mid-November 2017 and offer continuous winter sports operations in Grindelwald and Wengen early on. The Jungfrau Ski Region is a co-operation in which the Jungfrau Railway Group holds more than 60%. In 2017, 936,500 new entries were recorded throughout the Jungfrau Ski Region. For the Winter Sports segment, the net transport income could be increased from 2016 by 6.5 per cent. However, with 20.7 million francs in comparison with the good winter sports years 2007/2008, it remains unchanged at a low level.
Outlook
The 2018 financial year began slowly in the Jungfraujoch segment. Due to heavy gales in January, operation was significantly affected for a total of ten days with partial or complete closures. From 1 January to 15 February 2018, 46,392 guests visited the Top of Europe, which is a decline of 24.0 per cent versus the previous record year. However, the Jungfrau Railway Group currently registers a good booking status for the current financial year.
For the winter sports segment, the positive start to the season was also noticeably overshadowed by numerous cancelled days in January 2018 following heavy gales. The winter sport business continues to be challenging. Despite an early start, a strong season is not to be expected overall.
To fight the downward trend in winter sports, Jungfrau Railways continues to focus on improving quality. With the planned V-Cableway project, travel times with a direct connection to public transport should be hugely shortened and facilities of an international standard created. They expect to receive planning permission from the Federal Office of Transport (FOT) by the end of April 2018, thus ensuring the timely commissioning of the new Grindelwald-Männlichen aerial gondola at the end of December 2019.
