Cargo remains the bright spot for Turkish Airlines in 2020

A strong rise in cargo revenues helped Turkish Airlines end 2020 with a profitable final quarter at an operating level, though the Star Alliance carrier still posted a net loss of $836m for the full-year.

While the carrier’s passenger revenues slumped by two-thirds for the three months ended December 2020, to $876m, Turkish Airlines increased its cargo revenues almost four-fifths to reach $841m.

This helped the carrier post an operating profit of $61m for the fourth quarter, though it slipped to a net loss of $50m for the same period.

For the full-year, Turkish Airlines cargo revenues climbed 61%, to $2.7bn, helping to counter a 66% fall in passenger revenues, to $3.8bn. As a result Turkish Airlines revenues were down by just under half for 2020 at $6.7bn.

The improved cargo performance could not prevent the carrier posting an operating loss of $530m for the full year and a net loss of $836m. That compares with an operating profit of $585m and net profit of $788m in 2019.

“Cargo operations are continuing at full capacity with freighters and more than 10 widebody passenger aircraft are being utilised for cargo operations,” the airline says. “Cargo operations made a significant contribution to total revenue and profit compared to those of the previous year, thanks to increasing unit revenues and declining operational costs led by the drop in fuel prices.”

Turkish Airlines’ passenger levels fell 62% in 2020, to $28m, as the pandemic disrupted air services. The airline was in part helped by activity in the Turkish domestic market, which accounted for roughly half its passengers last year, up 10 percentage points over 2019.