4.6 million passengers – Net earnings after tax of €26.5 million
Aegean Airlines reports passenger growth of 13% and improved operating result for the nine-month period to September 2008 amid challenging conditions for the airline sector and a deteriorating economic environment.
More specifically, Aegean carried 4.6 million passengers in the nine-month period to September 2008, achieving a 13% y-o-y growth. The Company carried 8% more passengers on domestic flights while the number of passengers carried in the international network increased by 23% with market share gains achieved in the majority of routes. The average number of passengers per flight improved to 104 from 96 in 2007.
Revenue rose by 26% to €468.2m, resulting from the significant rise achieved in the international network where nominal fares are higher, the increase in the average capacity per aircraft due to the delivery of new Airbus A320-321 and the introduction of fuel surcharges. The Company’s profitability was negatively impacted by the 67% rise in fuel costs that reached €118m. Nevertheless, EBITDA increased by 13% to €51.5m, despite the dramatic increase in fuel costs, as a result of increased revenue and the benefits that gradually unfold from the fleet renewal. Net earnings after tax were 21% lower at €26.5m mainly due to valuation losses of USD aircraft loans resulting from the stronger USD vs the euro in the end of the third quarter and USD hedge losses.
Dimitris Gerogiannis, Managing Director, commented:
‘Aegean reports healthy 9-month results, showing an improvement on revenue and operating profits, against a backdrop of a difficult sector environment. The improvement of our operating result demonstrates Aegean’s ability to cope with the crisis that the airline industry is facing since mid 2007 but most importantly makes us confident of the company’s strategic directions in terms of our international route expansion and fleet renewal.
In the summer 2008 Aegean operated – from its bases in Athens, Thessaloniki and Heraklion – 23 domestic routes and 60 international routes (of which 43 charter), serving a total of 4.6 million passengers in the 9-month period, out of which 1.8m passengers reached international destinations.
The current financial crisis creates new challenges given the significant slowdown in the economy and makes forecasting over the next 12-18 month period extremely difficult. Within this environment, we believe Aegean’s operating costs will continue to decline with the completion of our fleet replacement programme and additional cost control initiatives we are undertaking. Additionally, our strong market position and balance sheet contribute to compete successfully going forward. For this reason, we remain committed to our development plans and we will continue placing our efforts on providing our customers more choices and the highest possible quality of service on board and on the ground.’
