An increase in skiers and higher lift-ticket prices helped propel Vail Resorts Inc.’s third-quarter income to the highest level of any third quarter, the company announced Wednesday.
Vail Resorts reported a net income of $68.3 million for the third quarter, which ended April 30, of fiscal year 2006, up 16.2 percent over last year.
“Really good results were expected, but this was even better than the best-case scenario,” said Will Marks, an analyst at JMP Securities in San Francisco.
The company said skier visits at its five resorts were up 6 percent overall last winter, offset by a decline of 3.3 percent at its Heavenly Resort in California. Breckenridge posted the largest gain, up 10.1 percent to 1.47 million skiers visits. Vail saw 1.57 million skiers, up 6.9 percent. The company also owns Keystone and Beaver Creek.
“The growth that we saw was certainly helped by being able to get out a good snow message early in the season,” Vail Resorts chief executive Rob Katz said.
The company also was able to raise average realized lift-ticket prices by 6.5 percent over the previous year.
Looking to next winter, the number of season passes already sold is up 4.8 percent over last spring, with the dollar amount up 17.4 percent, Katz said.
Net revenue for the quarter grew from $327.5 million in 2005 to $341.4 million this year, up 4.2 percent. Mountain revenues were up 14.8 percent, to $294.8 million. Lodging revenues declined by 29.8 percent, to $39.5 million, partly because of the sale of several hotel properties.
Katz also announced that Vail Resorts has secured contracts on nine of the 13 units planned for The Lodge at Vail Chalets, at an average price of roughly $2,400 per square foot. Construction will begin this summer.
The company is moving its headquarters from Avon to Broomfield this summer. At a job fair held in Lakewood last week, Vail Resorts took in 1,500 résumés for 120 open jobs, including 25 corporate positions in Broomfield, Katz said.
Vail Resorts stock closed at $36.48 Wednesday, up $1.09, or 3.1 percent.
Staff writer Julie Dunn can be reached at 303-820-1592 or jdunn@denverpost.com.
