Aegean has announced consolidated revenue stood at €939 million for the first nine months of financial 2018, up five per cent on 2017.

Pre-tax earnings rose 14 per cent, to €116 million, while net earnings after tax were up 13 per cent to €81 million.

During the nine-month period to September 30th, Aegean and its subsidiary Olympic Air, carried 10.8 million passengers, six per cent more than the previous year, with 4.8 million in domestic and six million in the international network.

Total passengers from/to Athens hub traveling on international routes increased by 12 per cent.

The load factor improved to 83.6 per cent from 82.9 per cent in 2017 as a result of efficient revenue and network management.

During the third quarter, revenue increased to €484 million, up nine per cent up compared to 2017.

Dimitris Gerogiannis, Aegean managing director, commented: “We have once again delivered strong profitability in the summer season, through developing our Athens hub but equally through new products and services which add value to our passengers.

“Our result was achieved despite the presence of new competitors with significant additional capacity in both domestic and international network as well as the effect of rising oil prices.

“We have followed a prudent and focused capacity development strategy for a second consecutive year.

“We focus on developing the right skills sets and infrastructure so as to ensure the efficient use of our new fleet investment which is critical for our future capabilities.”