Trading Statement

RNS Number:7640Q
Alpha Airports Group PLC
31 January 2002

                                                               31st January 2002


                              ALPHA AIRPORTS GROUP PLC

                                 TRADING UPDATE

ALPHA Airports ("ALPHA") is today announcing a trading update ahead of the
Company's close period.  ALPHA plans to release its Preliminary Results for the
year ending 31st January 2002 on Wednesday 3rd April 2002.

We are pleased to announce that underlying trading in the year to 31st January
2002 continues to be in line with our expectations following the announcement of
our Interim Results at the end of September 2001.

We have now had more time to evaluate the longer-term effects on our business of
the events of September 11th.  As a consequence, it has been necessary to take
steps to reshape our business and ALPHA thus anticipates one-off costs and
write-offs in the current year of some £23m, of which £8m have an impact on cash
flow over the next few years.

In summary, the one-off issues are as follows:-

Group

With a substantial reduction in worldwide airline travel since September 11th,
we have been faced with no alternative but to introduce a programme of
redundancies across all our businesses.  This is now complete and has resulted
in job losses of 923 with a related cost of £3m.  The redundancies have
principally been in the UK flight services business but we have also had to make
redundancies in our operations in Jordan, Australia and elsewhere in the Group.
This has been a difficult decision but essential for ALPHA to protect its
competitiveness going forward.

Flight Services

In UK flight catering, reducing British Airways (BA) activity and the transfer
of many of its long-haul flights from Gatwick to Heathrow has significantly
reduced our future  catering activity and thus profit at our Gatwick kitchen.
ALPHA is writing-off the remaining goodwill carrying value of the Gatwick
kitchen, acquired from BA in May 1999 for £14m, with a one-off goodwill charge
of £9.1m.

As we reported at the time of our Interim Results in September, our Australian
flight catering business has faced the very difficult challenges created by the
bankruptcy of Ansett, Australia's second airline.  In response, we will be
forced to close four of our smaller regional kitchens.  This will result in
goodwill write-offs of £1.5m and fixed asset write-offs of £0.4m.  On a more
positive note ALPHA has been invited to provide catering services to Tesna, the
new "Ansett" airline when it commences operation.  This start-up has been
delayed a month pending final negotiations between Australian airport owners and
the administrators.  If Tesna is successful in its bid then this will expand our
network of kitchen operations and give us a more secure and profitable base in
Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, where we will lease Ansett's
former kitchen facilities, and reintroduce full service catering provision on
Australian domestic flights, which should in time enhance our existing regional
kitchen operations.

We also have two associated companies in Belgium and the USA which have been
significantly affected by the downturn in business and we have reviewed the
goodwill arising on these investments;  consequently there is an impairment in
their value resulting in a goodwill write down of some £1.4m.

Retail Services

In the UK, overall performance has been in line with our expectations with full
year UK duty and tax free sales up 11% on a like-for-like basis.  Our
performance in Manchester's Terminal 1, with our new shop format which opened in
April 2001, has been excellent with sales up over 15%.

However, activity at several other UK airports has been impacted by substantial
changes in airline schedules and passenger mix.  As a result certain of our
retail contracts have become loss-making.  We will incur a one-off impairment
provision of £0.8m against fixed assets and a provision to cover future onerous
contract losses of £2.4m.

Internationally, retail trading has been adversely affected in each of Sri
Lanka, Florida (USA), and Barbados. In Orlando USA, another key customer -
Britannia Airways - no longer operates from the airport, leading to a further
significant loss of international passengers.  With a final three years to run
on this already loss-making duty free contract with the Greater Orlando Aviation
Authority, it has been necessary to increase our provision by £4.7m to cover the
additional anticipated losses on this already onerous contract.

Discontinued Activities

With a £0.2m write-off, we have agreed to sell our Barbados investment in A G
Retail, which had incurred worsening losses of £0.7m during the year.  At 31
January 2000, we established a provision of £2.6m for legal, environmental and
other costs in respect of US discontinued activities.  These issues have been
substantially resolved resulting in a release of the provision of £0.9m.

Outlook

Despite the many challenges faced over the last five months, underlying trading
in the year to 31 January 2002 continues in line with our expectations.  Looking
ahead, we are encouraged that the trading outlook continues to become clearer as
our airline and airport customers redefine their businesses in line with the
available opportunities.  ALPHA has reshaped its own business, and we are now
cautiously optimistic that we can continue to progress from a relatively strong
underlying trading base despite a very challenging aviation climate.

For further information, please contact:

ALPHA AIRPORTS GROUP PLC                                           0208 580 3200
Kevin Abbott, Chief Executive
Heather McRae, Finance Director

GAVIN ANDERSON & COMPANY                                           0207 457 2345
Laura Hickman
Amelia Hine



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