Pegasus Airlines held a press conference on Tuesday 6 June 2023 as part of the 79th IATA General Assembly and World Air Transport Summit, hosted by Pegasus.
Presenting the latest developments at Pegasus, plans for 2023 and future goals, Güliz Öztürk, CEO of Pegasus Airlines, weighed up the airline’s solid performance through 2022, and noted a continuing strong opening this year, despite prevailing economic and geopolitical factors.
2022 in retrospect
In what was a challenging year for the world airline industry as it moved out of the global pandemic and saw the gradual removal of travel restrictions, the Turkish Airline made a strong return.
Assessing the year 2022, which began and continued under challenging conditions, Güliz Öztürk, said: “2022 was a year in which we achieved significant success thanks to the rapid increase in travel demand, especially in the summer season.”
Öztürk went on to provide performance specifics for the carrier: “In 2022, we increased our total number of guests by 34% to 26.9 million. Compared to the previous year, the number of guests on our international routes increased by 96%, a much better performance than the overall market.”
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“We increased our revenue by 139% to 2.45 billion euros. Compared to 2019, the last normal year, our revenues increased by 41%. Compared to 2019, our total ASK capacity increased by 8% and international capacity by 23%.”
The airline’s CEO went on to note that the carriers EBITDA margin reached 34.1% at the end of the year, becoming the best performance in the world for this metric.
A strong start to 2023
Commenting on the first months of 2023, Güliz Öztürk said: “We started 2023 under challenging conditions due to global macroeconomic concerns, and subsequently as our country unfortunately experienced a major earthquake disaster.”
“We are also in the midst of a period where global inflationary pressures are causing challenges with planning.”
Despite prevailing world factors, Pegasus Airlines, in the first four months of 2023, increased capacity by 32% and the number of our guests by 31% compared to last year.
100th aircraft in the 100th year of the Turkish Republic
With the aim of increasing its total capacity by around 20% in 2023, Pegasus Airlines plans to pass the 100 aircraft mark in the 100th year of the Republic and continue to grow its fleet.
Pegasus plans to take delivery of 10 A321neo aircraft in the remainder of 2023, 21 in 2024 and 11 in 2025. Pegasus will continue to focus on digital transformation, sustainability, diversity, equality, and inclusion, and wholeheartedly supports aviation’s sustainability goals.
Pegasus’ pioneering digital transformation efforts, fleet transformation with new generation aircraft, rapidly expanding flight network, investment in technology and people, sustainable aviation initiatives and commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion will be the pillars of its sustainable success, said the airline CEO.
“Moving towards a sustainable future”
Emphasising that Pegasus is taking firm steps towards its environmental and social goals as well as its strong economic performance, Güliz Öztürk said:
“We are determined to do our part. In 2021, we set a target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and reinforced this with our emission intensity reduction target for 2030.”
“While we continue to work with stakeholders on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production, particularly in Türkiye, we are also increasing our experience and impact in the use of SAF. We are moving forward in line with our 2050 and 2030 environmental goals.”
Speaking on the social and human element Öztürk concluded: “We also place great importance to diversity, equality and inclusion.”
“Through our initiative called ‘Harmony’, we are setting our targets for a more equal and pluralistic future by implementing various projects within the framework of spreading an inclusive culture, with a focus on gender equality.”
