Eurostar sees passenger numbers surge

Published on Friday 12 January 2007 01:12

EUROSTAR, the cross-Channel rail service, yesterday reported record sales figures and traveller numbers for 2006 as it won customers from a troubled airline industry.

Turnover rose 11.7 per cent to 518.3 million in the year, while passenger numbers were up 5.4 per cent to 7.85 million.

A spokesman for Eurostar said the firm predicts similar growth in the next two years and ten million passengers a year by 2012. The company said that increased security at airports and disruption to flights caused by foggy weather in December drove thousands of passengers to switch from air travel to Eurostar.

The firm attributed a 10.6 per cent surge in international sales to a global partnership with the blockbuster film The Da Vinci Code, set in London and Paris.

Richard Brown, chief executive of Eurostar, said: "We expect 2007 to be another good year, with events such as the Tour de France in July and the Rugby World Cup in the autumn already generating strong demand in the group's market."

Business traveller numbers climbed by more than 17 per cent, against a 4.5 per cent boost in leisure traveller numbers.

Punctuality touched 91.5 per cent, well above Civil Aviation Authority figures of 70 per cent at London's airports.