AEGEAN AIRLINES – 9 months 2010 results

AEGEAN announces results for the 9-month period to September 2010. Revenue declined 3% at €466.2m. Earnings before taxes for the 9-month period were negative at €1.9m whilst net result after taxes posted losses of €8.4m, burdened by €6.6m related to the extraordinary social contribution charge imposed on 2009 earnings.

The total number of passengers traveling with Aegean declined by 3% at 4.9m in the 9-month 2010 period. The Company’s international expansion strategy yielded with 2.4m passengers travelling on AEGEAN’s international network, a 12% y-o-y rise. On the other hand, traffic on the domestic network, declined by 15% to 2.5m passengers, reflecting the weak domestic consumption conditions.

The third and seasonally most important quarter contributed significantly on limiting the substantial losses recorded in the first six months of the year. Improved results came mainly from the recovery in demand on international routes, which together with the Star Alliance entry helped in partially offsetting the impact of significant higher fuel costs. On the other hand, demand and fares continued to decline significantly in the domestic network, even during the peak summer season.

Mr. Dimitris Gerogiannis, Managing Director, commented:
“Our financial performance continues to be adversely affected by the severe recession of the Greek economy. Our investment in strengthening our international network helped our 3rd quarter results, while at the same time supported the Greek tourism industry. Our network and fleet adjustments, our efforts to improve costs and productivity and our investment in new systems have helped to mitigate the severe consequences of the Greek economic crisis. The fourth and seasonally weak quarter is expected to be loss making, leading with certainty to a substantially negative result for the year as a whole.

Within this environment, despite the significant challenges faced and the necessary network and cost adjustments that are being implemented, we remain confident that our strategy is sound. Our commitment in quality is a given but at the same time we are well aware of the fact that Greek consumers are increasingly price sensitive. Therefore we will continue and indeed intensify our efforts to further improve our productivity and competitiveness to secure our long term objectives.”