Profit alert slices £3m off Air Partner chief's fortune

The chairman of Air Partner, the world's biggest corporate jet broker, saw £3m wiped off his personal fortune yesterday after the company warned of a collapse in profits.

Shares in Air Partner tumbled by more than a quarter, reducing the value of Tony Mack's 41 per cent stake from £11m to £8m, after the company said rising costs and a slump in bookings would leave earnings for the current half-year "substantially below" last year's level.

The company blamed the prospect of war in the Gulf for the sudden downturn in the air charter market in the last three months. Mr Mack, who took the business public 14 years ago, said it was "as if a switch was flicked in November". Trading at the start of the current financial year, which began in August, had been satisfactory but more recently sales had been "extremely disappointing", it said.

Bookings, which had virtually recovered to their pre-11 September 2001 levels during the early summer months, are now down by some 25 per cent compared with a year ago.

David Savile, Air Partner's managing director, said the downturn had been most pronounced in the company's two biggest markets – the UK and the US – adding that customers were now often booking business jets with just three or four weeks notice rather than three of four months. "There is a lack of confidence among our customers and a huge uncertainty hanging over them because of the prospect of conflict in the Gulf," he added. "When wars are looming people tend to stop chartering private jets."

Mr Savile said the group had also been hit by £1m in additional costs after taking on staff from its US rival Flightime, which Air Partner bought last summer, and opening new offices in the US, Europe and Dubai.

Air Partner said as a result of the sudden slowdown and the volatility of its market, it was difficult to make any forecasts for its performance for the year as a whole. The company also said its international expansion would proceed more slowly.