Aegean Airlines pulls out of three EX-YU markets
Aegean Airlines has terminated operations to Croatia, Montenegro and Macedonia, with no indication flights will resume next year as all ticket sales have been suspended. The decision affects the Greek carrier’s operations from Athens to Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Split, Podgorica and Skopje. The airline is currently offering alternatives only to Zagreb through its codeshare partner Air Serbia via Belgrade. At the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March, Aegean announced it was also discontinuing its operations to Sarajevo, marking its exit from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s market after just one year of operations. Aegean has been serving Croatia since 2015, Montenegro since 2017 and Skopje as of 2018.
The Greek carrier was initially to resume services to Croatia in June, but then pushed flights back until September before completely terminating all planned operations to the country. Flights to Podgorica and Skopje were also to be restored next month. The only remaining market in the former Yugoslavia to be served by Aegean is Serbia. The carrier had resumed operations to Belgrade in July but cancelled flights shortly after Greece introduced entry restrictions for the majority of Serbian nationals. It has scheduled its service resumption to Belgrade for September. As a result of the cancellations, there will no longer be any scheduled flights from Montenegro or Macedonia to Greece. Croatia Airlines continues to maintain seasonal operations from Zagreb and Dubrovnik to Athens.
Aegean Airlines has restored around 50% of its network so far. The airline’s Chairman, who said he expects 2020 to be the worst year in the company’s 21-year history, noted the airline has been losing 26 to 28 million euros each month during the second quarter. CEO Dimitris Gerogiannis told shareholders the airline’s cash reserves stood at over 400 million euros at the end of June, without including bank credit lines. “The challenges we face because of Covid-19 are unprecedented. Our actions to strengthen the company’s cash shield and reduce our overall costs and adjust our network to current conditions are continuing and are gradually producing results”, Mr Gerogiannis said.
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