Aegean Airlines H1 revenue falls by two-thirds

Greek carrier Aegean Airlines’ saw its earnings collapse by 64% in the first half and is warning that the “least predictable winter ever” lies ahead. The airline made a net loss of E159m ($185m) in the January-June period, including a E68.5m charge from ineffective hedging – “mainly due to the large portion of fuel-hedging contracts for the duration of 2020 being rendered ineffective by the significant reduction in flight activity”. The number of flights operated by the carrier in Q2 was down 82%, including falls of 95% and 92% in the months of April and May respectively, while passenger traffic fell 92%. “The last seven months have been a constant strife for flexibility, resilience and efforts to develop our viability forward in what is certainly the most difficult period the global airline industry has ever faced,” states Aegean CE Dimitris Gerogiannis. “Due to travel restrictions the second quarter of the year was a period with essentially zero activity. Our efforts were primarily directed towards cost management as well as establishing and implementing strict protocols for the safety of our passengers and crews.” By the end of June, with travel restrictions partially lifting, Aegean had begun to rebuild its activity with its network expanding to 84 destinations from Athens and 52 from its regional bases. But when Covid-19 cases began surging higher again in August, demand for air travel once again begin to fall back. “As a result, we operated less than 50% of our scheduled activity in August with particularly low load factors for the period,” notes Gerogiannis.<br/>