Pegasus Airlines Doubles Pre-Tax Profits In First Nine Months
12-Nov-2013 Turkey's leading low-cost carrier Pegasus Airlines has increased its pre-tax profits by 93 per cent to 226 million Turkish Liras for the first nine months of 2013 compared to the same period in 2012 according to the Public Disclosure Platform's (KAP) financial data as of September 30, 2013. During the same period its Operational EBITDAR reached 464 million Turkish Liras, representing a year-on-year increase of 53 per cent compared to last year's 302 million Turkish Liras.
Having announced a strong traffic data for the January-September 2013 period, Pegasus carried 12.6 million guests, representing a year-on-year increase of 22 per cent. In this same period, the load factor reached 80.6 per cent, representing an increase of 1.7 percentage points.
Continuing to be on the cutting edge of operational efficiency, Pegasus has increased its daily aircraft utilisation even further to 12.8 block hours (from 11.9 block hours in 2012) and achieved 7.5 turns per day (from 6.9 turns per day in 2012) respectively.
Following the release of the nine months financial results, Pegasus Airlines CEO, Sertaç Haybat, stated; "As Turkey's leading Low Cost airline, we have continued to grow in the first nine months of 2013, the year during which we listed on Borsa Istanbul; capitalizing on the growth and successes of the past eight years. Remaining steadfast to our nature as a 'low cost airline', we have succeeded in reducing our cost-base aggressively and continued to grow and expand our network. In the first nine months of 2013 we decreased our cost per available seat kilometre (CASK) from 4.23 € cents to 4.05 € cents, translating to a 4.4 per cent reduction. In short, we have succeeded in growing and expanding whilst providing more flight destinations to our guests and creating value for our shareholders."
In the first nine months of 2013; Pegasus added six new international routes: Belgrade, Sarajevo, Barcelona, Doha, Bishkek and Moscow; and within the domestic network, another six including Muş, Denizli, Kahramanmaraş, Nevşehir, Amasya (Merzifon), increasing its domestic network to 31 destinations and international network to 45; growing its total destinations to 76. At the end of the same period in 2012, Pegasus was flying to a total of 53 destinations including its domestic network.
Pegasus Airlines has not only continued to add new routes to its network, but also new aircraft to its fleet. The average age of Pegasus' fleet is now just four years old, making it one of the world's youngest and most dynamic fleets. By the end of September 2013 the Pegasus' fleet had increased to a total size of 45 having added six aircraft to its fleet during the previous 12 months.