Greek flag carrier Aegean Airlines has reported a slump in net profit during the third quarter of the year. Aegean reported a net profit for the three-month period of €108.3 million ($114.5 million), a decrease of 19% when looking at the comparable quarter of the year prior. Aegean has cited the suspension of flights to and from Tel Aviv and Beirut, due to ongoing conflict in the region, as a reason for the reduction of 3.5-4% of international traffic during the third quarter.
It was not only the airline’s profit that saw a fall in comparison to the same period of 2023, with Aegean also reporting a total consolidated revenue of €630 million ($666.3 million) down by 3% in comparison to the previous year. In addition, the airline saw a 20% reduction in EBITDA, dropping to €182.3 million ($192.8 million) for the quarter.
Commenting on the airline’s results, Dimitris Gerogiannis, Aegean’s CEO, who provided an optimistic outlook commenting: "AEGEAN once again demonstrated strong performance despite significant exogenous constraints in its operations and increasing competitors’ capacity in the Greek market. The successful network rescheduling and the agility of our organization have delivered once again very strong set of results comparable with the top performing companies in our industry.”
With the airline describing the period between July and September as a “challenging environment,” Aegean served more than 5.3 million passengers, which is no change from the year prior. Domestic Passenger traffic recorded a 6% increase, while its international network recorded a decrease of 3% compared the third quarter of the previous year, mainly due to the suspension of flights to Israel and Lebanon. Load factor totalled 83.9%, a decrease of 1.9 percentage points when looking at the comparable period of the previous year.
During the quarter the airline saw the completion and initiation of operations at its new MRO and training centre at Athens International Airport, as well as placing a minority investment in Volotea.
Along with third quarter figures, the airline also posted its results for the first nine months of the year. Aegean has seen overall growth in its consolidated revenue between January and September of 2024, in comparison to the previous year, increasing by 4% to €1.38 billion ($1.45 billion). Despite an increase in its revenue, the airline has however seen a drop in net profit for the period in comparison to 2023, declining by 23% to €132 million ($139.6 million). EBITDA was also down for the period, seeing a reduction of 10%.
Looking ahead, Gerogiannis noted expansion for the airline, increasing capacity in comparison to 2023 operations in the fourth quarter: “For the fourth quarter AEGEAN plans to offer 4.5 million seats, 7% higher than the same period in 2023, increasing frequencies and capacity on both domestic and international routes such as to/from London, Istanbul, Larnaca, Venice, Berlin, Dubai, Naples, Tirana, Belgrade, Sofia as well as launching new routes like Athens-Abu Dhabi and Thessaloniki-Amsterdam.”
During the last quarter of the year, Aegean will also continue to take deliveries of additional new aircraft, supporting and benefiting from the gradual extension of the tourism season.