Pegasus announces first quarter earnings

Pegasus announced a higher-than-market loss in the first quarter of 2023, while its foreign exchange-based loss was 22 million euros Pegasus announced a loss of TL 598 million in the first quarter of 2023, above expectations of TL 441 million. TL-based EBITDA was TL 1.204 billion, above expectations of TL 1.159 billion, while turnover was TL 8.79 billion, in line with expectations. In foreign exchange terms, the company announced a net loss of € 22 million in the first quarter of the year. The company had announced a loss of € 60 million in the first quarter of last year. Euro-based EBITDA increased from € 33 million in the first quarter of last year to € 69 million. EBITDA margin also increased from 12.1 percent to 15.5 percent in the same period. The EBITDA margin of 15.5 percent was the best first quarter performance in the company's history. Due to the upward trend in the Euro/Dollar parity, a largely non-cash exchange rate difference income of €22 million was recorded in the first quarter of 2023. Net interest expense in the first quarter was €32 million. Total costs increased by 50 percent annually in the first quarter. The main factors that increased total costs were fuel expenses and personnel costs, which increased by 63 percent each. In line with the ongoing strategic positioning, international seat supply increased by 22 percent in the first quarter compared to the previous year and constituted 58 percent of the total seat supply. While the total number of guests grew by 29 percent in the first quarter, scheduled unit passenger revenue increased by 25 percent. The number of international guests increased by 40 percent annually. Total ancillary revenues increased by 68 percent, while ancillary revenues per guest increased by 30 percent. However, total sales revenues increased by 64 percent in the first quarter compared to the same period of the previous year. Pegasus welcomed 3.7 million passengers on international lines in the first quarter Pegasus, which showed a higher performance compared to the total market with a 9 percent increase in the number of international guests in 2022 compared to 2019, hosted 2.6 million passengers on domestic lines and 3.7 million passengers on international lines in the first quarter of the year. On the other hand, the number of domestic passengers in the first quarter remained below the 4.0 million passengers recorded in the first quarter of 2019. On international lines, the first quarter figure was above 2019. The increase in unit revenues continued in the first quarter of 2023. The company's domestic scheduled unit revenue per guest was 442 TL, while it was above 289 TL in the same quarter of the previous year. International scheduled unit revenue increased by 23 percent in euro terms in this quarter compared to the previous year. While international scheduled unit revenue per guest was 61 euros, this figure was 45 euros in the same period of 2019 and 50 euros in 2022. Ancillary revenues per guest reached 24.9 euros in the first quarter. This amount was 19.2 euros in the same quarter of the previous year. Pegasus' total cash and cash equivalents stood at 848 million euros as of the end of March. The positive cash position, calculated by deducting bank loans and issued bonds from total cash reserves, increased from 66 million euros at the end of 2021 to 324 million euros at the end of March 2023. The company also announced its expectations for the future. Pegasus stated that ticket sales, which continue to gain momentum, support expectations that international passenger demand will be strong during the high summer season. While Pegasus maintained its forecast of a 20 percent increase in total supply capacity in 2023 compared to 2022, it was stated that there would be a high base effect from 2022 in annual comparisons as of the second quarter of this year. In total for 2023, a 1-2 point increase in international occupancy rate and a 'high single-digit' increase in total ancillary income/guest ratio were predicted compared to 2022.