airBaltic’s losses under Covid-19 reach almost 185 million euros in the first half of the year The news

Riga, August 26, LETA. According to the Covid-19 pandemic, the turnover of the Latvian national airline airBaltic group decreased by 63.6% in the first half of this year – to 78.713 million euros, while the group’s losses increased almost seven times and amounted to 184.77 million euros, according to the company’s information.

The rest of the group’s revenue amounted to 3.81 million euros, which is an increase of 19.1% compared to the first half of last year. Therefore, the total revenue of the airBaltic Group in the first six months of 2020 was 82.523 million euros, which is 62.3% less than a year earlier.

Representatives of the airline informed LETA that during the Covid-19 crisis, airBaltic experienced a significant drop in revenue and the number of passengers carried.

“We started this year steadily with continued sustainable growth in both January and February, but in the following months the industry experienced the worst crisis in aviation history. As a result, airBaltic was forced to suspend flights for 62 days and demand for them fell sharply overall,” he said. Martins Gauss, Chairman of the Board of airBaltic.

He explained that in order to combat the crisis, airBaltic promptly reduced its operations and costs, adjusted its business plan “Destination 2025 Clean”, and provided funding from its shareholders. “Thanks to this, the moment the market recovers, we will be in a good position to fully resume flights with our efficient Airbus A220-300 fleet,” Gauss emphasized.

According to the management report, after the resumption of flights in May and the increase in bookings in June, July, airBaltic significantly increased its capacity, reaching 2,000 flights per month and carrying 150,000 passengers. At the end of July, however, growth has slowed, as the number of Covid-19 infections has risen again in several European countries. This has a negative impact on future flights and has resulted in flight cancellations to destinations that the Center for Disease Prevention and Control (SPCC) does not consider to be safe.

The future of the European aviation market remains uncertain, so it would be premature to predict the result of the second half of 2020, but until the aviation market recovers, airBaltic will be ready to take full advantage of it.

It has already been reported that in the first half of this year, airBaltic carried 810,317 passengers, which was 64% less than in the corresponding period last year due to Covid-19. The number of flights decreased by 58% to 12,501.

LETA has already reported that airBaltic’s audited turnover last year was 503.281 million euros, which is 23.1% more than in 2018, but the company suffered a loss of 7.729 million euros compared to the profit a year earlier.

The Latvian state owns 96.14% of the voting rights in the capital of airBaltic, but the financial investor, Danish businessman Lars Tusen, owns Aircraft Leasing 1 – 3.86%.

–