Pegasus Airlines targets $278 mln profit

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s Pegasus Airlines has said it targets a net profit between 210 million and 250 million euros (around $278 million) this year.

The carrier’s EbitDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) margin forecast for 2020 is 32 percent to 32.5 percent.

Pegasus also expects a 12 percent to 14 percent capacity increase (available seat kilometers).

Domestic load factor is forecast to remain flat while international load factor is expected to rise by between 1 percentage point to 1.5 percentage points year-on-year, the company said yesterday in a filing with Borsa Istanbul.

The number of air jets in the fleet will increase by 10 at the end of the year, it added.

Pegasus reported earlier in January that it saw a 0.3 percent annual decline in the number of passengers it carried to 29.9 million in 2019.

The number of domestic passengers dropped 11.5 percent on an annual basis to 15.7 million, while the number of international passengers rose by 17.2 percent to 13.7 million last year.

In the first nine months of 2019, the carrier’s revenues increased by 16 percent to 1.3 billion euros while its net income jumped 37 percent to stand at 199 million euros.

In the third quarter of last year, the carrier’s revenues and net income were 647 million euros and 182 million euros, respectively.