Turkish Airlines’ net profits hit $735 million in three quarters of 2021

Turkish Airlines has reported a net profit of $735 million in the first nine months of 2021, İlker Aycı, the flag carrier's chairman of the board, has announced.

"We managed to post profit at a time when other airlines, such Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and United Airlines recorded siginifcant losses.

We recovered from the fallout from the pandemic faster than other airliners," Aycı said, according to media reports on Nov. 5.The carrier's revenues stood at $2.37 billion while revenues from the cargo operations amounted to $969 million in January-September."The total of our revenues hit $3.4 billion, or 85 percent of the revenues earned in 2019.

The EBITDA [earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization] rose 7 percent to $1.4 billion in the first nine months. Our nine-month net profits increased from $675 million in 2019 to $735 million. Thus, we have exceeded the level of the pre-pandemic period in profitability," said Aycı.Turkey's flag carrier served 31.1 million passengers in this period, he added.

The company also succeeded in protecting its employment figure around 60,000 despite the fallout from the pandemic, the Turkish Airlines chairperson also said.Turkish Airlines reached over 1,000 flights a day on June 25 for the first time since COVID-19 struck. 

The airline led the list of Top 100 Turkish Brands 2021 for the fifth time in a row with a brand value of $1.61 billion, down 18.7 percent from last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a Brand Finance survey showed.Turkish Airlines reaped $1.8 billion total revenue in the first quarter of 2021, down 29 percent year on year amid pandemic-related travel restrictions around the world. 

The company's subsidiary Turkish Cargo is amont the top 10 in the world with...