Bad weather forces Air Methods 4Q profit down 27 percent

Storms cut Air Methods 4Q profit by 27 percent

DENVER — Air Methods Corp., which provides emergency medical air transportation, said Friday that its fourth-quarter profit fell 27 percent as severe weather led providers to cancel patient transports.

Its net income fell to $2.7 million, or 22 cents per share, compared with $3.7 million, or 30 cents per share, a year earlier. Its revenue rose 1 percent to $120.2 million.

The results included a loss of $200,000 from the disposition of assets, compared with a gain of $300,000 a year earlier.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, who typically exclude such one-time items, expected Air Methods to earn 27 cents per share on revenue of $121.6 million.

Its shares rose 4 cents to close at $27.74.

The number of patients the company transported in the fourth quarter from bases that had been in operation for more than a year fell 9 percent. Bad weather caused the cancellation of 781 more transports than the same period a year ago.

For the current quarter, the company said the figure was down 15 percent, compared with a year earlier. Requests for community-based services at bases open longer than a year also decreased 8 percent due to severe weather.

For all of 2009, the company earned $29 million, or $2.33 per share, up 50 percent from the $19.3 million, or $1.54 per share the previous year. Its revenue rose to $510.6 million from $498.8 million. Analysts expected profit of $2.37 on revenue of $510.7 million.

Air Methods’ 2008 revenue included $7.7 million related to hurricane response under a contract with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It generated no such revenue in 2009.

CEO Aaron Todd said the earnings growth resulted in part from a conversion to single-engine aircraft from twin-engine, lower fuel prices and improved reimbursements for each community-based transport.

Todd said flight volume should return to normal as the weather moderates.