Aeroflot announces FY 2019 IFRS financial results

Moscow – Aeroflot Group (“the Group”, Moscow Exchange ticker: AFLT) today publishes its consolidated financial statements for the year ending 31 December 2019 in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards. The results, including for the comparable period of the previous year, are published in accordance with the new IFRS 16 Leases standard.

Key financial highlights:

• Revenue increased by 10.8% year-on-year to RUB 677,881 million;
  
• EBITDA amounted to RUB 168,924 million;
  
• Net profit totalled RUB 13,512 million.
  

Andrey Chikhanchin, PJSC Aeroflot Deputy CEO for Commerce and Finance, said “Aeroflot Group grew its key operating and financial indicators in 2019. A 9.0% increase in passenger traffic to 60.7 million led to a 10.8% increase in revenue, which totalled RUB 677.9 billion. For shareholders, the key financial highlight of the year was a significant increase in net profit to RUB 13.5 billion.

“The results for 2019 should be considered in the context of a number of external factors. The year began with consistently high fuel prices and FX pressures on the non-RUB component of our costs, which put pressure on our results for the first quarter of 2019. In the second quarter, we saw a rise in fuel costs following the closure of Pakistan’s airspace, which led to longer flight times to destinations in Thailand, India and Vietnam and required lower passenger loads. During the summer season we were working against the high base effect of the same period in 2018, when Russia hosted the World Cup. Nevertheless, Aeroflot Group managed to improve its performance due to high demand in the summer season and a substantial reduction in the 4Q loss, from RUB 16.3 billion in 2018 to RUB 6.8 billion in 2019.

“Stronger 4Q 2019 results were achieved thanks to a number of revenue- and cost-management initiatives taken by the management team, including active capacity management, the introduction of additional services to increase passenger comfort, and strict cost control. Along with simple budgeting and financial control decisions, we implemented a number of initiatives to increase internal efficiency, including negotiations with partners to achieve more favourable financial terms. As a result, in 4Q 2019, RASK increased by 3.2% year-on-year while CASK reduced by 1.7%. Pressure from the factors mentioned above was thus fully compensated by the financial results for the last quarter, despite it being traditionally a low season.”