ITA Airways

Positive Financial and Operational Figures for ITA Airways in 2024 H1

Although fall is already among us, we just recently got access to ITA Airways’ H1 operational and financial performance data. The Italian airline approved only recently its H1 balance sheet which reported some encouraging data regarding its operational and financial performance. Let’s take a closer look.

Revenue Up, Operating Margins Up and Good Growth Indicators for ITA Airways 2024 H1

Before moving into the nitty gritty, the data I’ll be talking about refers to period included between January 1st and June 30th 2024. This first half of 2024 saw the new Italian flag carrier register revenues for 1.4 billion euro. With an extremely healthy growth over the same period of 2023 of 300 million euro.

Even more important to this newcomer to the aviation world is the fact that the carrier managed to pull off a 62 million euro profit. Even this performance indicator, the most important one, is up by 130 million euro. I must say that for an Italian, it is a peculiar feeling, one rarely felt, seeing the flag carrier post a profit after the many years of Alitalia blunders.

Lastly, cash reserves have also gone up. The airline increased its reserves by 31 million euro, closing 2024 H1 with 393 million euro.

Summing things up, ITA is still far from being a powerhouse on the world stage, but at least it isn’t burning through cash as its predecessor used to do all too often.

Airbus A320 della ITA Airways in fase di rullaggio all'aeroporto di Amsterdam Schiphol. La compagnia aerea italiana utilizza gli A321, leggermente più grandi sulla nuova rotta Roma Dubai in arrivo ad ottobre 2024.

Inevitably Operational Results Are Also Positive for ITA

Positive financial results can only be achieved with positive operational results. There’s no way out of that, and this case is no exception. All ITA Airways operational indicators are green when compared to 2023’s H1.

Let’s start by talking about load factor. In 2024’s first six months the arline on average filled its planes up by 79%. That figure is up by 2 points over 2023’s H1. Not something to get too excited by, but definitely a step in the right direction for the Italian carrier. Just as a reference Etihad, a similarly sized airline by fleet and passengers carried, consistently reaches load factor levels close to 90%.

What I find extremenly positive for ITA Airways is the total number of passengers transported and the revenue generated from this activity. In 2024’s H1 8.3 million passengers flew ITA marking a 26% lead forward from the prior year. That increase of transported passengers allowed the airline to generate 33% more revenue. That means that ITA Airways has been extracting more value from each passenger it flies on its planes.

One piece data that should be worked on is the airline’s on-time performance. At the end of June 2024 78.1% of flights arrived on time. There is ample space to improve here.