Financial resources
Revenue
Net traffic revenue was €208.7 million in 2017. This represents an increase of 3% compared with the previous year. The vast majority of transport tickets are changing: traditional subscriptions, multi-journey tickets and school subscriptions. With regard to school subscriptions, the loss of income due to the price reduction for the first child (€50 instead of €120) was partially offset by the significant increase in the number of subscriptions sold.Advertising revenue increased by 14% and rental income by 7% thanks to the increased number of shops in metro stations. Miscellaneous revenue increased by 25%. This increase is linked in particular to surcharges, which have increased significantly due to the escalation and optimisation of checks and the improvement in the collection rate.
Expenditure
The business's operating expenses were €583.2 million. Salary costs (€445.8 million) were slightly up on 2016 following an increase in the workforce and the indexing of salaries.Maintenance, rental, traction energy and supply costs decreased (€102.8 million), primarily due to the decrease in rent following the property transaction at head office at the end of 2016.
Coverage ratio
STIB monitors the development of its "SEC" coverage ratio, calculated using the method recommended by the Institute of National Accounts. This ratio does not take into account expense and income items.In 2017, the coverage ratio of the company's expenses from its own income, excluding subsidies, reached 41.5%. Since 2014, the annual allocation that enables STIB to improve its transport offer has been considered a subsidy, not a transport service remuneration. It is therefore excluded from the calculation. Consequently, this has a downward impact on the coverage ratio as spending has increased at a faster rate than the traffic revenues, which do not cover all the transport costs.