Łukasz Gągulski/PAP

PLL LOT, Poland’s national airline, suffered a PLN 1.04 billion (EUR 227 million) loss in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the company said in a management report.

The PLN 1.04 billion loss is a sharp contrast to its PLN 68.9 million (EUR 15 million) profit in 2019, the company said.

The company’s loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) reached PLN 584.3 million (EUR 127.3 million) against a profit of PLN 225 million (EUR 49 million) in the previous year.

“The situation concerning the Covid-19 pandemic and, in particular, the suspension of regular air connections made it impossible to carry out the company’s core business and, as a result, were the reason for the low financial results,” the company wrote.

Passenger traffic at LOT declined by over 70 percent in 2020 to 3.1 million people and the number of charter flights plunged by 73 percent, the company added.

The state holds 69.3 percent of shares in LOT and the state-owed Polish Aviation Group holds the remaining 30.7 percent.