Aegean profits slip in third quarter amid capacity constraints

Profits at Greek carrier Aegean Airlines slipped by around one-fifth in the third quarter, a period in which capacity was limited by the continued impact of the Pratt & Whitney geared-turbofan (GTF) engine inspections and conflict in the Middle East. Aegean’s pre-tax profit fell 18% to E139m in the three months to 30 September 2024, while net profit dropped 19% to E108m. Revenue fell 3% during the quarter to E631m on flat passenger levels of 5.3m. That reflects constrained capacity during the third quarter, which was 1% lower, while traffic fell 3% over the same period last year. Load factor was two points down at 83.9%. Aegean’s capacity was hit by the continued impact from groundings related to the early inspections of the GTF engines powering its Airbus A320neos. It says it grounded up to 10 aircraft – around 17% of its jet fleet – over the first nine months of the year. The carrier also took a roughly 3.5-4% hit to international traffic in the third quarter as a result of suspending its Beirut and Tel Aviv flights due to the ongoing conflict in the region. Aegean Airlines CE Dimitris Gerogiannis says: “Aegean once again demonstrated strong performance despite significant exogenous constraints in its operations and increasing competitors’ capacity in the Greek market. The successful network rescheduling and the agility of our organisation have delivered once again a very strong set of results comparable with the top-performing companies in our industry.”<br/>