Turkish Airlines reported a 2016 net loss of $77 million, reversed from a net profit of $1.7 billion for the previous year.
The Istanbul-based carrier reported a $291 million loss from main operations for the year, reversed from an $895 million profit in 2015.
Revenue for 2016 was $9.8 billion, down 6.9% from $10.5 billion in 2015.
Turkish Airlines had budgeted for double-digit growth in 2016, but the June terrorist attack at Istanbul Ataturk Airport and an attempted military coup later in the same summer seriously affected demand and profits.
Turkish CEO Bilal Eksi told ATW recently that the flag carrier expected to have losses, “but not so much because of what happened last year. In 2016, demand suddenly changed.”
ASKs grew 10.7% and the carrier transported 62.8% million passengers, up 2.5% year-over-year (YOY), creating a load factor of 74.6%, down 3% YOY.
Operational expenses grew 3.1% YOY to $10.1 billion for 2016.
Turkish generated $1.6 billion of EBITDAR in 2016, down 36.9% YOY, with a 16.6% margin, down 7.9 percentage points YOY.
SunExpress, a joint venture of Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines, announced a loss of $26 million for 2016.
Looking forward, Eksi said the biggest challenge for 2017 is cost savings and growth. Also, he said priorities were “modernizing our IT systems and exploring ancillary revenues, for example on exit rows like other airlines are doing.”