How to approach Listening Test Part Three •In this part of the Listening Test you listen to a monologue, e.g. a presentation.

Good morning. I’m here today to say a few words about Airspeed’s disapppointing results last year and to tell you about our plans for the future.
      So why did we make a loss of ￡18.2 million last year? There are various reasons. Firstly, although it seems that certain large companies aren’t too worried about cutting costs, we know that the amount of money being spent by all firms on their travel budgets has generally fallen. This is an area where companies can often make immediate savings. A second reason for the loss is that fuel costs rose enormously last year. Although we were able to cut many of our general expenses, this increase was out of our control.
      Thirdly, all airlines, including Airspeed, were affected by the poor weather last year. As you know, planes were frequently unable to take off or land.
      In addition to that, we’re now facing greater competition, particularly now that a brand-new company, Star Airways, has started to operate on a number of our key routes.
     So what are we going to do now? Last year we decided to spend [400 million to finance the acquisition of new planes. You’ll understand that we now can’t afford this investment - though of course, we’ll still need to spend heavily on new safety equipment.
      However, as you know, we’ve just been voted Best Airline in the law cost sector and we come second in the Best Small Airline Awards. This confidence shown in us by clients has encouraged us to schedule additional flights starting this summer We’re also thinking of extending the range of our on-board services. Any changes will focus on flights to top destinations only.
     Right, thank you for taking the time to listen today. You can be sure that we’ll do all we can to ensure that the next results will be better