Flag carrier TAP records €65.6M profit in 2022 after €1.6B loss in 2021

  • Lusa
  • 21 March 2023

TAP's restructuring plan, approved by the European Commission at the end of 2021, envisaged that the airline would start making a profit in 2025.

TAP made a profit of €65.6 million in 2022, the airline announced on Tuesday as it returned to positive results after losses of €1.6 billion in 2021, ahead of forecasts in the company restructuring plan.

“TAP closed 2022 with a net profit of €65.6 million, an increase of €1,664.7 million on the previous year,” the airline said in a statement.

TAP’s restructuring plan, approved by the European Commission at the end of 2021, envisaged that the airline would start making a profit in 2025 and achieve a positive operating result in 2023, something the company achieved in the first half of 2022.

The airline has thus returned to profit, which it had last recorded in 2017, when the group made a positive result of around €21 million.

“During the fourth quarter of 2022 TAP was able to generate the highest quarterly revenues in its history and record profitability, despite ongoing operational challenges,” Christine Oumières-Widener, whose resignation was announced by the government earlier this month, following the compensation of half a million euros to former director Alexandra Reis, said in the same statement, and who will not hold the usual press conference to present the results.

The official also pointed out that “during the first full year of the restructuring plan, TAP generated an operating profit that is a historical ‘record’ for the company” and “also generated a very strong positive net profit, taking into account its level of leverage.”

Last year, profit before interest and taxes (EBIT), was also positive, reaching €268.2 million, including non-recurring items of €19.4 million.

TAP carried a total of 13.8 million passengers in 2022, which corresponds to an increase of 136.1% on the previous year, reaching 81% of 2019 levels.

Revenues, meanwhile, reached €3.485 billion, up 151% year-on-year, along with a higher level of activity, with ASK (a metric that calculates the total seat capacity available on each flight) increasing 94.2%.

The number of flights operated increased by 74.9%, last year, reaching 79% of pre-pandemic crisis levels.

Capacity reached 87% of pre-crisis levels, increasing 94.2% year-on-year, and the ‘load factor’ (a metric to measure a flight’s occupancy rate) improved 17 percentage points year-on-year to 80%, just 0.1 percentage points below the 2019 level.

Passenger revenue per seat-kilometre offered (PRASK), meanwhile, was 6.68 euro cents, an improvement of 48. 2% compared to 2021 and 20.5% compared to 2019.

The cost of fuel more than tripled in 2022, increasing by €756.2 million year-on-year to €1.096.7 billion.

The effect of higher fuel prices contributed €458.4 million to the increase in fuel costs.

Year-to-date, the cost per seat-kilometre (CASK) of recurring operating costs decreased by 10.7% compared to the previous year, down to 7.04 cents.

Excluding fuel, the reduction was 27.8%, taking unit costs without fuel to 4.66 cents, only 0.5% below the 2019 level (4.68 cents).