Greece’s Aegean looks to second half for recovery

Aegean Airlines is expecting a gradual, but significant, recovery in the second half of this year, if progress with coronavirus vaccination roll-out and European digital passport initiatives progress. But the company says the first months of this year have been “heavily impacted” by restrictions, as it unveils the scale of losses for last year. Aegean turned in a full-year pre-tax loss of E297m for 2020 in contrast to the E107m profit in the previous year. Net losses reached E228m, the company states, on full-year revenues which were down nearly 70% to E415m. Revenues for Q4 fell by 74% as new restrictive measures were imposed in Greece and across Europe during a resurgence of the pandemic. But it says that cash and equivalents stood at E478m at the end of December 2020. “From the onset of the crisis we have worked diligently to manage the challenges of this special period,” says CE Dimitris Gerogiannis.<br/>