Turkish Airlines is another European Airline which is moving up in terms of its profit. It is also an airline that was one of the first to use Sustainable Aviation Fuel in keeping with the industry’s efforts to combat climate change. As we know Sustainable Aviation Fuel, otherwise known in its abbreviated form as SAF, delivers an 80 percent reduction in polluting substances, including carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas. The fuel uses a mixture of renewable, plant-based substances such as ethanol and waste oils.
Turkish Airlines has been moving from strength to strength, having already exceeded its pre-pandemic performance in terms of passenger numbers as well as seat occupancy levels.
Turkish Airline’s Financial Performance
So, how has Turkish Airlines done financially? According to the statements released, the airline has recently made a profit of 576 million US dollars in the three months leading to June 30th 2022. This is directly compared to 161 million US dollars in the three months leading to March 31st 2022. This shows that Turkish Airlines has now made a profit in 2 consecutive quarters, showing that the company’s improvement in performance is translating to better financial results. The results also show considerable improvement on last year at the same time when Turkish Airlines was making a loss of 62 million dollars. This suggests that the company is now recovering strongly from the pandemic which confirms the findings early on that the company has exceeded pre-pandemic performance.
In terms of revenue (total money received), Turkish Airlines has improved to 4.535 billion US dollars for the three months up to June 30th of this year which is more than double the revenue earned in the three months up to June 30th 2021 (1.796 billion US dollars). This shows that the increase in passenger numbers post-pandemic has translated into a significant increase in money received. The revenue received is also significantly higher than the previous quarter ending March 31st 2022 with the figure at that time being around 3.051 billion US dollars. As one can see in this case there has been a 48.6% increase in the revenue in this quarter when compared to the previous one.
Turkish Airline’s Expenses
In terms of expenses, fuel seems to be the highest expense for Turkish Airlines with the total cost at 1.822 billion US dollars for the three-month period up to June 30th. This is more than three times higher than the fuel price in the three months up to June 30th 2021 when the total cost was 563 million dollars. The cost of fuel has increased by over three times whereas revenue has only doubled in the same time period. This suggests that fuel costs have gone up disproportionately. As we know this is a common occurrence across all airlines as world events, and in particular, the war in Ukraine is affecting the prices of all fuel around the world. This means that even SAF would be affected. As we know SAF is also more expensive than conventional, adding more to the cost of fuel. It does appear however that like Singapore Airlines and Southwest Airlines, Turkish Airlines is reducing the impact of fuel price rises by hedging.
As one can see Turkish Airlines is seeing the positive post-pandemic performance translate into better financial results. However, like many other airlines, Turkish Airlines is having to deal with increased fuel charges, especially since it is now using SAF. However, the airline, like many others, appears to be heading in the right direction. We have to wait to see how this progresses.
