BusinessToday Previous Editions

3 NEWS 30.07.2020 TURKEY'S national airline Turkish Airlines will resume flights to Malta af- ter four months of service suspension between the two countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Turkish Airlines previously operated two daily flights be- tween Malta and Istanbul, connecting the two countries with 322 destinations worldwide. e Istanbul - Malta - Istanbul service is now planned to operate with seven flights a week from 1 to 15 August. Every Monday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sun- day the service will operate in the morn- ing with flight numbers TK1369/70. While every Tuesday ursday and Fri- day the service will be in the evening with flight numbers TK1371/72. After August 15, the airline will operate five flights each week, temporarily eliminat- ing the flights on Saturdays and Sundays. Turkish Airlines suspended flights to 127 countries on March 28 due to the pandemic and resumed domestic flights on 1 June. International flights resumed on June 10 and are gradually increasing in frequency worldwide. Passengers having flight tickets booked until December 2020 and ticketed before 20 March 2020 are being offered chang- es at zero fees and open dated ticket options. Passengers whose tickets were affected by a flight cancellation are also offered a 15% extra value travel vouch- er or money-back refund as part of the COVID-19 involuntary schemes. Maltese passengers travelling to Istan- bul do not require a visa to enter Tur- key. Passengers will not be placed under quarantine in Turkey on arrival from Malta. On the other hand, passengers who are travelling from countries which are not listed on the "safe country list" to Malta are advised to consult with the local Public Health for any entry restric- tions. Precautions to mitigate the effect of the pandemic on air travel are taken very se- riously at Istanbul Airport during check- in and boarding such as fever measuring, the wearing of face masks at all times and restriction of access to terminal only to passengers holding a valid air ticket. Turkish Airlines is also distributing hy- giene kits and performing air steriliza- tion with HEPA filters as part of the new normal rules. FROM PAGE 1 ese decreases reflect the signifi- cant downturn in traffic resulting from a blanket ban on all commercial flights, which came into effect on 21 March. It resulted in a decrease of 73% in revenue from airport activity, from €31m in the first six months of 2019 to €8.4m in the same period this year. MIA re-opened to commercial opera- tions on 1 July 2020 with a limited flight schedule. Since then, the airport's sum- mer schedule has been updated regular- ly in order to reflect the most recent de- velopments and, currently, offers direct connections to more than 70 airports. A spokesperson for the company told BusinessToday that, having re-assessed the current situation and its adverse ef- fects on the Group's revenue generation, as well as taken into account the fluidity that still prevails, MIA is not in a posi- tion to provide dependable forecasts that can give accurate guidance to the market on the same basis as that given in Janu- ary 2020. And the Board of Directors, with a view to manage the company's cash reserves in a moment of significant curtailment of cash inflows and in effort to preserve the Company's organisational set-up and structures, decided it was not prudent to recommend the payment of an interim dividend to shareholders. However, in the light of the gradual re- sumption of operations at the airport, the Board decided to re-instate full re- muneration of all employees, including the Board itself, as of 1 August. MIA's operating costs during the first six months of the year were diluted by €4.3m (34.2%) when compared to last year as variable costs for customer ser- vices, security, maintenance and VIP products registered a double-digit de- crease. Total expenditure during the pe- riod amounted to €12.4m, a decrease of €5.2m over last year. Notwithstanding, EBITDA of the Group decrease by 90.5% over the previ- ous year, from €27m to €2.6m, resulting in a net loss of €2 million. MIA sais that once all commercial flights were banned, it implemented sev- eral strict cost-cutting measures target- ing an initial reduction of overall oper- ating costs of 30%. e Board, including the CEO and CFO, took a voluntary 30% reduction in their renumeration. e company's management team accepted temporary salary reductions of 25% and temporary salary reductions, bases on a four-day working week for April to July were agreed to by the unions. To further preserve liquidity, MIA made drastic adjustment to its original capital expenditure for 2020, suspend- ing all non-essential projects. It has now shifted its focus to the construction of the new multi-storey car park and the expansion of the cargo village, which were already at an advanced stage before the COVID-19 pandemic surfaced. MIA's directors said they have reason to believe that, with the measures tak- en so far and others which are planned should the need arise, the group is suffi- cuiently resilient to be able to sustain the current conditions and that it has suffi- cient resources to meet all of its financial obligations for 2020. MIA with €2m net loss in H1 2020 Works on the new multi-storey car park kicked off in March 2019 Scheduled passenger flights from Istanbul to resume this Saturday

• Cover