Aegean Airlines pulls out of all EX-YU markets over winter
Greece’s Aegean Airlines will no longer operate any flights to markets in the former Yugoslavia this winter after it revised its upcoming schedule which now excludes its last remaining service in the region to Belgrade. The carrier, which resumed operations between Athens and the Serbian capital in July, cancelled them shortly after Greece introduced entry restrictions for the majority of Serbian nationals, which are still in place. However, it initially planned to restore flights between the two countries next month. Aegean now intends on returning to the Serbian market on March 29, 2021 and has put tickets on sale for the route. The airline will continue to codeshare with Air Serbia to and from Belgrade throughout the 2020/2021 winter season. The Serbian carrier currently maintains operations to both Athens and Thessaloniki and plans to do so over the winter as well.
Last month, Aegean Airlines announced it was discontinuing flights from Athens to Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Split, Podgorica and Skopje. At the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March, the carrier also terminated its operations to Sarajevo, marking its exit from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s market after just one year. It will resume services to Dubrovnik on March 29, Zagreb on March 31 and Split on May 18, 2021. Services to Podgorica, Sarajevo and Skopje will not be restored. Aegean has been serving Serbia since 2010, Croatia since 2015, Montenegro since 2017 and Skopje as of 2018.
In a recent report by HSBC entitled “European Airlines - state aid and governance”, the bank found that Aegean’s balance sheet remains strong, even without state aid. In particular, HSBC analysts pointed out that, "Among the airlines we evaluated, Aegean is the only one to have not received state aid. Like all carriers, Aegean has benefited from the labour measures taken by the Greek government for companies affected by the pandemic, having suspended employee contracts. However, the state aid received was limited". It added, “Although Aegean Airlines did not receive any significant support or funding from the Greek government, it entered the pandemic with very good finances. Available cash reserves during the second quarter stood at 465 million euros and unused credit lines amounted to 120 million euros. The company was burning forty million euros in cash every month during the lockdown, which means that it is capable of surviving the crisis”.
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