Aeroflot Group is highlighting the performance of its budget arm Pobeda, posting a net profit for the carrier for both the third quarter and the first nine months of this year.
The company says Pobeda increased passenger numbers during the quarter, compared with last year, and achieved load factors up to 95% as domestic traffic recovered in Russia.
Group chief financial officer Andrei Chikhanchin says the results illustrate the “strength and resilience” of Pobeda’s business model.
But Aeroflot Group, as a whole, is nevertheless bracing for the seasonal cycle to enter its low period, after turning in a third-quarter operating loss of Rb10.6 billion ($139 million) under international accounting standards.
It says this is an improvement on the Rb32.9 billion operating loss in the second quarter, but states that the low season will “remain challenging for all airlines”.
Aeroflot Group’s nine-month operating loss reached Rb56.7 billion, while the net loss stood at Rb79.4 billion, and it says it is continuing to adopt a “conservative approach” to capacity deployment.
