Novaturas Group earned EUR 34.5 mln. in the first quarter

Novaturas Group, the leader in the Baltic tourism market, has announced its results for the first quarter of 2024. In January–March, the company generated revenues of EUR 34.5 mln. This is EUR 3.7 mln. (10%) less than in the corresponding period of 2023. The company’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) was EUR 316 thsnd.

In January–March, Novaturas Group served a total of 35.7 thsnd. customers in the Baltic States (38 thsnd. in the corresponding period last year).

The net profit of the company for January–March amounted to EUR 8 thsnd. In the same period last year, it was EUR 1.57 mln. These changes are due to complex reasons: a lower demand for Egypt and customer caution due to the military conflict in the Middle East, as well as the changed competitive environment resulting in the decline in profit margins. The company has also recorded the rising operating and commission sales costs this year in order to maintain competitive conditions for employees and partners.

In addition, a large part of the profit for the first quarter of 2023 was due to the decrease in the price of aviation fuel that Novaturas has effectively used. Meanwhile, in January–March this year, such favourable market conditions were not available, which also led to a decline in profits.

Kristijonas Kaikaris, CEO of Novaturas, points out that this year the company has been prompt to respond to changes in travellers’ behaviour and has adapted its travel programme accordingly. This has resulted in optimised operations and a high load factor in all destinations offered by the company, which was 97% on average during the given period.

“In the first quarter of this year, we experienced a drop in demand for flights to Egypt, which is very popular in the winter season. It is also worth mentioning that in the Baltic outbound tourism market we have two new tour operators that mainly focus on the most popular destinations across the Baltic States, i.e. Turkey and Egypt, and naturally seek to compete on the market with their price offers, which has partly affected the changes in our profit margins. Profitability this year has also been affected by increased costs. Finally, we have observed a slightly weaker demand for travel in the Estonian market, compared to Latvia or Lithuania,” says Mr Kaikaris.