Aeroitalia Shows You Can Make Money Flying In Italy With $7.5 Million Profit In 2023

Aeroitalia, which launched its operations a year and a half ago, has managed to finish its second operational year with a positive profit before taxes, which, according to the airline, was 33 times higher than in 2022. The carrier began operations in July 2022.

An impressive year for Aeroitalia

According to the carrier’s brief statement, it earned €131 million ($141.2 million) of revenue, ending 2023 with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of €9.7 million ($10.4 million). This is 415% and 1160% more than a year prior, respectively.

As a result, its profit before taxes was around €6.9 million ($7.4 million), 3,284% more than in 2022, with the carrier confirming it was 33 times larger than a year ago. However, Aeroitalia’s release did not detail its operating costs, the nature of the revenue, or the split between regular passenger operations and charter flights and other financial metrics, such as cash on hand.

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Growing Italian market

While the Italian Civil Aviation Authority (Ente Nazionale per l’Aviazione Civile, ENAC) is yet to publish detailed traffic results for 2023, which includes a breakdown of how many passengers each airline has carried domestically and internationally, the authority has presented year-to-date (YTD) data for December 2023.

Photo: Wirestock Creators | Shutterstock

ENAC’s statistics showed that, in total, Italian airports welcomed 197.1 million passengers in 2023, 20% more than in 2022, with the market growing beyond 2019 levels by 2%. Domestically, there were 68.6 million passengers, up by 6% compared to a year prior.

However, legacy airlines substantially grew their traffic by 55% compared to low-cost carriers, whose Italian passenger numbers only increased by 2% in 2023. Still, legacy carriers trail no-frills airlines in total passenger numbers in 2023: 86.8 million versus 110.2 million, respectively.

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Retreating low-cost carriers

Ryanair, easyJet, and Wizz Air, three airlines that carried the most passengers per ENAC in 2022, have significantly reduced their Italian domestic flying programs in 2023, with the only exception being Ryanair. Data from the aviation analytics company Cirium showed that Ryanair’s domestic Italian flights, seats, and available seat kilometers (ASK) had only grown by 0.7%, 0.5%, and 0.4%, respectively, in 2023.

Meanwhile, easyJet’s flights, seats, and ASKs went down by 13.5%, 15.3%, and 16.2%, respectively, while Wizz Air has slashed its schedule significantly, reducing flights (-82.3%), seats (-81.4%), and ASKs (-79.7%). In 2024, Wizz Air has no scheduled domestic Italian flights, while easyJet has continued cutting flights within the country. On the other hand, Ryanair will significantly increase its domestic flying in Italy in 2024, adding 6,917 flights, 1.2 million seats, and 736 million ASKs during the year compared to 2023.

Photo: ITA Airways

While Cirium has no data on Aeroitalia’s operations, ITA Airways, the leading Italian airline, has planned similar growth within the country to Ryanair, with 8.2% more flights, 11% more seats, and 9.7% ASKs in 2024. However, the airline, whose merger with Lufthansa Group hangs in the balance due to the European Commission’s (EC) recent preliminary review, will significantly trail behind Ryanair regarding the two airline’s domestic schedules.

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