Aegean Airlines Group: post-COVID recovery prioritises profit, not market share

Aegean Airlines Group is operating 16 new routes in summer 2023, taking its total network to 161 destinations and 264 routes.

For the full year 2023, the group plans its highest ever capacity levels, which should allow record traffic and take its passenger numbers above 2019's level of 15.0 million.

In 2022 Aegean was still below 2019 levels of capacity and traffic, but it reported its highest ever revenue and profits. Its 1Q2023 results recorded improvements versus 1Q2019 on all of capacity, traffic, revenue and profits.

Aegean's capacity recovery has not kept pace with the wider Greece market, where LCCs have returned capacity much more quickly. As a result, it has lost market share since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, with Aegean sitting in a market segment between LCCs and traditional legacy airlines, the priority for Greece's biggest airline group would seem to be profitability, and not market share.