Aegean says 2020 will be the worst in its history

Aegean Airlines expects 2020 to be the worst year in its 21-year history as restrictions imposed to contain the new coronavirus pandemic have hit revenues and grounded planes, its chairman said Monday. Aegean suspended international flights on March 26 but will restart flights to some European destinations by the end of May. "The fact that the third quarter will be loss-making ... means that 2020 will be the worst year in our history," board chairman Eftychios Vassilakis told investors in a conference call. Airlines around the world have cut flights as civil aviation authorities imposed restrictions and countries closed borders to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Aegean, which flew a record 15m passengers last year, expects to increase operations to around 50% by September from 25% in July, under a best-case scenario, its chairman said. Revenue in Q1, which started strong but suffered from a "disastrous" March will be down 15% to around 145m, leading to a pretax loss of about E80m. Vassilakis said that increasing operations to about 75% to 80% could be possible next year and if achieved, would be a high enough level of activity to allow Aegean to compete in Europe. In common with many other airlines, he said Aegean would slow the pace of taking deliveries of new aircraft in the next years.<br/>