Turkish Airlines’ net profits hit $735 million in three quarters of 2021

ISTANBUL

Turkish Airlines has reported a net profit of $735 million in the first nine months of 2021, İlker Aycı, the flag carrier’s chairman of the board, has announced.

“We managed to post profit at a time when other airlines, such Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and United Airlines recorded siginifcant losses.

We recovered from the fallout from the pandemic faster than other airliners,” Aycı said, according to media reports on Nov. 5.The carrier’s revenues stood at $2.37 billion while revenues from the cargo operations amounted to $969 million in January-September.“The total of our revenues hit $3.4 billion, or 85 percent of the revenues earned in 2019.

The EBITDA [earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization] rose 7 percent to $1.4 billion in the first nine months. Our nine-month net profits increased from $675 million in 2019 to $735 million. Thus, we have exceeded the level of the pre-pandemic period in profitability,” said Aycı.Turkey’s flag carrier served 31.1 million passengers in this period, he added.

The company also succeeded in protecting its employment figure around 60,000 despite the fallout from the pandemic, the Turkish Airlines chairperson also said.Turkish Airlines reached over 1,000 flights a day on June 25 for the first time since COVID-19 struck. 

The airline led the list of Top 100 Turkish Brands 2021 for the fifth time in a row with a brand value of $1.61 billion, down 18.7 percent from last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a Brand Finance survey showed.Turkish Airlines reaped $1.8 billion total revenue in the first quarter of 2021, down 29 percent year on year amid pandemic-related travel restrictions around the world. 

The company’s subsidiary Turkish Cargo is amont the top 10 in the world with a market share of around 5 percent.Turkish Airlines served 28 million passengers last year despite the pandemic, down 62 percent year on year.The company’s operating profit hit $112 million in the last quarter of 2020, while many airlines continued to post losses in the same period.Turkish Airlines saved $300 million as it canceled some investments planned at the beginning of 2020.In overall 2020, Turkish Airlines’ operating loss ammounted to $255 million.

Meanwhile, the airline will fly to 248 destinations in November, it said in a statement on Nov. 3.British Airways owner IAG said on Nov. 5 that third-quarter losses shrank sharply on the lifting of Covid travel curbs, and expressed hope of a return to profit next year.The loss after taxation hit 574 million euros ($664 million) in the three months to September compared with 1.8 billion euros a year earlier, IAG said in a statement, while revenues more than doubled on strong long-haul demand.The group’s star performer, Spanish carrier Iberia, meanwhile bounced back into profitability.

Germany’s Lufthansa on Nov. 4 reported its first underlying operating profit since the coronavirus crisis. The group reported EBITDA of 17 million euros ($20 million) in the third quarter, versus a loss of 1.262 billion euros a year earlier, supported by strong freight business and rising demand during the summer season with the easing of travel restrictions.The International Air Transport Association (IATA) predicts total passenger numbers of 2.3 billion in 2021, up from 1.8 billion last year but below the 4.5 billion in 2019 before the pandemic.