Good morning. Dear listeners, welcome to Novaturas Meeting with Investors. I'm Emilija from Nasdaq Vilnius, and I'm delighted to be the moderator for the today's event. We will start with a presentation from the management, which will be followed by the Q&A session. As always, I encourage every one of you to ask questions during or after the webinar in the question box of your screen. With that said, I'm pleased to introduce today's presenters, CEO of Novaturas, Audronė Keinytė, and CFO of Novaturas, Giedrius Ribakovas. Dear guests, please, the floor is yours and good luck.
I know you're discussing the business environment and our business activity and its results. To start with, I would start, of course, with the key financial results. First of all, talking about the revenue and turnover of Novaturas Group during the nine months of operation in 2021. During the nine months, Novaturas Group has achieved EUR 74.7 million of revenue, which is still below 2019 by 46%. This is mainly influenced by still weak first and second quarter of 2021, when the market was still recovering gradually. However, during the third quarter, the capacities in terms of the numbers of tourists as well as in terms of turnover have already increased significantly.
We are slightly below the numbers of 2019 in the third quarter compared to the same period of 2019. The EBITDA during nine months we achieved almost EUR 2 million of EBITDA. Of course, comparing to 2020, we had a negative EBITDA of more than EUR 1.5 million. It is a very positive result considering that we are still in the pandemic and we have still quite a lot of dynamics in the business environment and the governmental decisions and the epidemiological situation in the destinations and the source markets.
Once we come to the indicator of net profits, we see that we have achieved very similar numbers to 2019. We have achieved EUR 1.1 million of net profit, which is around 15% lower than 2019. During the same period in 2020, we reached EUR 3.7 million of net loss. Now, the most important events in the third quarter of 2021 are the following.
First of all, we have, as mentioned before that, we have been very much involved into and so very much focused on the recovery of the business and on recovery of the capacities in order to reach to the pre-pandemic levels as soon as possible. Apart from this, of course, we were following the other priorities. I'm happy to see that we have managed to handle or execute our financial obligations even earlier than the agreed deadlines with the financial institutions without any additional restrictions. First of all, we have redeemed the convertible bonds worth EUR 2.5 million before the term agreed.
As well, we have repaid the long-term bank loan, which is worth more than EUR 3 million, and we have converted it to the credit line. Further, we are aiming to, let's say, achieve a very positive financial results in order so that to be able to fulfill our financial obligations or to execute them earlier than it is agreed. Apart from this, during the third quarter, which was our, I would say main quarter during the year. In general, historically, the third quarter is the most significant in terms of the capacities during the third quarter, which is the main summer seasons, July, August, and also September.
We always generate the highest capacities, and we have the widest portfolio of the destinations. Apart from this, we are also starting and generating more and more sales for the winter destinations. We have sold and continued with the sales for the winter 2021, 2022, with our main destinations such as destinations in Egypt, Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh resorts, Tenerife Island in Canaries, and United Arab Emirates and other destinations. On top of this, we have opened the ski destinations for the month of January, February and March of 2022. We have successfully opened those destinations, and we are going to operate and offer our clients from the Baltic markets, skiing in the resorts of Italy and France.
We are very glad to see and to notice the huge demand on the skiing resorts, which also leads us to increasing the capacities to those destinations. Apart from this, we also intensively worked with our long-haul products. On top of existing destinations such as Cancun in Mexico, Thailand, Bali, and Seychelles, we have also added and supplemented our portfolio by some additional destinations such as Mauritius, Zanzibar, and Cuba, which are also added to our long-haul destinations portfolio. Certain destinations from the exotic destinations portfolio are already opened. We are already having clients traveling to those destinations.
Some other destinations such as, for example, Bali or Thailand, we are still following and monitoring closely the situation so that to open those destinations as soon as possible because there is a huge demand for the long-haul destinations. We are the only tour operator in the Baltic markets to offer such a variety of long-haul destinations and to offer it even during those times. On the other hand, as mentioned, we are recording an increased demand for those destinations because the clients and the market is really keen to experience and to travel to and to have the variety and to have the choice from many more destinations than previously.
Now talking about the other products and our client service, especially during the third quarter with increased capacities. We had to be well prepared with our client service, with our human resources. We are constantly working on the processes improvements, on the improvement of the client service, on follow-up of the market needs, and not only reactively, but also proactively. Additionally, considering the environment of the pandemic, we continue offering the clients very flexible conditions which would allow them to plan their holidays without any fear of, let's say, COVID cases. Therefore, during the pandemic, we have launched a special product, COVID Force. Additionally, during the third quarter, we also launched an additional travel protection service, Self-Isolation Force.
Together, both the combination of those two additional services, they give much more guarantee and much more confidence for the clients to plan their holidays in advance without having the fear of change of the plans and losing their, let's say, prepayments to the tour operator. This, let's say, additional product and additional service in combination with very attractive commercial conditions and flexible commercial conditions, allows us to plan and expect that the market will be recovering much more fast. Now talking about our flight operation during the third quarter, I'm really proud to say that we have managed to come back to the portfolio and the diversity of the destinations, as we had before the pandemic.
During the July and August of 2021, which are the main summer seasons, we have operated the flights to Turkey, three islands in Greece, to Montenegro, to two destinations in Bulgaria. In September, we also increased our portfolio and increased our number of destinations. We have added as well two destinations in Italy, such as Sicily and Calabria. As well, two destinations in Portugal, Madeira Island and also Algarve. We have also started our operation to Egypt, which continued later on to the winter season. I have to say that the diversity of the destinations is already the same as it was before the pandemic. This allows us to think very optimistically about the fourth quarter.
We still do not forecast the exact numbers and exact financial results that we are targeting. But hopefully from the next year, once the situation is becoming more and more stabilized, we hope that we will be able to come back to more detailed and clear forecast. On the other hand, a more and more stabilized business environment and more and more stable situation of the markets allows us to have a very optimistic planning for the fourth quarter. For the fourth quarter, we are aiming to continue targeting 2019 capacities, and we are planning to operate more than 40,000 pax for the fourth quarter in total. All the Baltic markets as well.
Again, considering that this situation is very much stabilized and we have very stable and I would say increasing demands for traveling abroad. We are targeting positive profitability and positive EBITDA for the fourth quarter. I mentioned already increasing demand, and I have to say that especially high demand was recorded in October and specifically for the school holidays period in October. We have had a huge demand, which was followed as well by business decisions such as increasing the flight capacity, adding some other destinations and extending our summer season. Even our summer season is ongoing up till now and will be extended to October to November month to the summer destinations such as Turkey.
This allows us to plan and to forecast that the market is more than the situation or the epidemiological level is still, let's say, epidemiological situation in the market is still in the source markets and is still quite critical. Again, traveling regulations and the situation how the European Union has and other destinations outside European Union have coped with the health and safety requirements, how strict regulations are applied to the travelers and how the situation has been controlled and handled. This allows us to think that even during the pandemic, traveling can come back to our lives. One more trend that we noticed during the fourth quarter is that we see a huge demand in the skiing holidays.
Again, this forced us or let's say based on this, we are increasing our ski destinations capacity. We are adding more flights to our ski destinations. We see that the markets, especially considering that last year skiing was almost unavailable for the market. We notice a huge demand on this, and people are really coming back and planning the ski holidays in advance, which is necessary because ski destinations are very limited. The hotels are small, the resorts are small. Also the capacity, the flight capacity is quite limited. It is very much recommended to plan the ski holidays in advance and to have it fixed. The other very important and very positive indicator I would say is that we are coming back.
We see that markets and the tourism industry is coming back to the previous habits and to the previous environments. People start planning their holidays in advance. We already see a very much growing numbers of early bookings, not only for the further winter season, but also for the summer 2022. Due to this, let's say, we are also checking and monitoring our flight capacity and also during mid-year changes so that to increase and maybe even to exceed our numbers of 2019. What is very important that the client gains a lot of different values when they are booking early. First of all, the prices are the most attractive during the early bookings.
It is achieved not only by getting, let's say, the most attractive conditions from the hotels and from the destinations for the early bookers, but as well by, let's say, planning our pricing policy accordingly. Second thing is that the client can choose from the biggest diversity of the destinations and of the hotels, because the hotels are still available and not fully booked. Third and very important factor that the destinations are also coming back to the pre-pandemic levels, and there is a huge demand in most of the destinations because most of the markets, West European markets, Central Europe, most of the markets have already opened.
Even UK, which is a very important market for many destinations, also has taken off all bans. Due to this, the destinations are very much demanded. The hotels are quite fully booked. We already can see it from our second part of the summer season, 2021, and also the winter season. Therefore, it is very much recommended as well to book the holidays in advance and to have the holidays fixed. This would help the clients to plan, let's say their holidays more with more stability. As well, it would maybe bring more stability in general to the tourism sector.
Where the last minute would be minimized and would be, let's say, as it was during the pre-pandemic level, pre-pandemic times. For the fourth quarter operation, we are again coming back to the pre-pandemic destinations portfolio. October, we are operating our flights to Turkey, to Portugal, to Funchal, to Madeira, to Faro, Algarve, to the Tenerife Canary Islands, to Egypt, destinations. In November, we are already stopping our summer destinations such as Turkey and Portugal, so we remain with our winter destinations with Tenerife and Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh. In December, we are also having UAE, United Arab Emirates, flights to Dubai. On top of this, we have our long-haul destinations such as Cuba, Mauritius, Mexico and Seychelles, which are planned for the fourth quarter.
In January, we will have skiing destinations starting, as well as we will have more. We hope to have more wide portfolio of long-haul destinations. Now after discussing the forward-looking statements, I would like to come back to the main indicators of our nine months and third quarter of operation. First of all, in terms of the number of passengers, during the nine months of 2021, we have had 123 thousand passengers, which is still 46% lower than in 2019. This number is very much affected by the first and second quarter, which were still gradually recovering and are significantly lower compared to 2019.
However, the third quarter shows already that we are coming back very fast to the numbers of 2019, and we have had during the third quarter 77,500 passengers, which is just 20% lower than 2019, the same period. It shows that we are with a huge speed coming back to the capacities, to the pre-pandemic capacities. If compared to the third quarter of 2020, when we could operate some flights from all markets to certain destinations, we have 6 times better result in terms of the passenger numbers. In terms of revenue, the numbers are pretty much the same. I mean, the differences between the year.
During nine months of 2021, we had EUR 70 million, almost EUR 75 million turnover, and the third quarter is EUR 45.6 million. If we compare the third quarter to the second quarter, we have twice bigger numbers. It is a very clear indication of very speedy recovery of the markets. If we talk about the product portfolio, we see that the flight package tours are the main portfolio, main product. More than 90% of our total revenues are for the flight package tours. For the holidays by flights, unfortunately, sightseeing tours by coach and by plane are still quite difficult to organize, and we are recovering them as well.
They are already in our program, and we are aiming to bring them back with full capacity from 2021. For this year from 2022, sorry. For this year, it was still quite difficult to operate. Now, if you look into each market, we see also quite, I would say, different situation in the markets in general. For the third quarter, we see that all markets were already, of course, having better results than 2020. It's even incomparable. What we can see that even if we look into the 2020, the third quarter was very successful for Estonia. It even exceeded the numbers of Lithuania.
Also Estonia is also on the same track for the third quarter in 2019, in 2021. In 2021, Estonia generated 24.17 thousand passengers, which is just 7% less than in 2019. While in Lithuania, which where we have numbers of 39.47 thousand passengers during the third quarter of 2021, it is 20% lower than 2019. We see a very positive trend for Estonia. This positive trend has been already recorded in 2020. Unfortunately, we see still bigger gap in Latvia. Latvia numbers are still by 40% below 2019.
This is mainly due to the maybe situation in the markets, governmental restrictions, also the, let's say, the vaccination processes which are more slow than in, Lithuania and Estonia, and therefore, this is also, somehow reflected in the, numbers. This is more or less about the markets if we talk about the markets. If we discuss the destinations and the sales distribution between the destinations, we can see that, to certain main summer destinations, we are coming back more or less to the same, revenue share as we had it in 2019. Turkey and Bulgarian destinations, Tenerife are reaching to the same, sales or, revenue share. We still record higher demand for Greece.
In terms of the sales share percentage-wise, during the nine months of 2021, we have almost double capacity to Greece. I mean, proportionally compared to the other destinations. Egypt share is much lower due to the fact that Egypt is the mainly winter destination, and usually it is operated from October to April, including. This year in 2021, January, February, March and April were still very low, and we were just gradually restarting the flights to those destinations. The other destinations such as ski and long-haul, unfortunately, we almost had no operation to those destinations in 2021 nine months.
Here I would also like to mention that the other destinations are also gaining huge importance and especially during this year, 2021 summer season, we have recorded and experienced a huge demand to the exclusive destinations such as Montenegro, Corfu, Kefalonia islands in Greece. More exclusive, less discovered destinations, which also of course brings a conclusion that the clients, they want to travel more, to see more, especially after missing one year of traveling. Now once we come to the distribution slides, again, we see positive trends. I'm also happy to see that, considering that the market is moving also to more online based on the pandemic circumstances.
We see that, I mean, we report much higher sales share in nine months in 2021 compared to previous years, 2020 or 2019. We have 20.3% of the sales from e-commerce, which is global. It includes our web sales as well as the GDS sales, so our applied sales on the global distribution system. That's a very positive indication, and we are constantly investing on improvement of our e-commerce channel, and bringing all possible optimizations so that to have, let's say, an effective and efficient tool for the clients who want to book online.
Our own retail has maintained its sales share, and we have approximately 11% of group-wide sales done through our own retail channels. Of course, as usual, our main distribution channel is travel agencies. We are also happy to see that the majority of our travel agents have survived the pandemic situation quite successfully. Our key agents, most of them, virtually without individual exception, are with us also now, strongly recovering and very well prepared for the recovery of the markets. We are again continuously looking for the new operational tools and ways how to increase our cooperation and how to strengthen our cooperation with our B2B travel agents.
The final slides just to discuss more in details the profitability ratios, the productivity ratios. First of all, talking about the EBITDA. During the nine months, we have achieved almost EUR 2 million of EBITDA. Last year it was EUR -1.6 million. During the third quarter, we have achieved EUR 200,000 of EBITDA. Well, actually the third quarter is always the most intensive in terms of capacities, in terms of the number of flights, in terms of the volumes. However, it is also the most competitive month because we also have the summer season in the markets. The local resorts are also opened.
Also the net costs on the destinations are the highest, which reflects also in the lower profitability on the third quarter. As well, I have to mention that during 2021, we had clear target and a clear strategy to focus on the recovery of the capacity. This was, I would say, almost fulfilled. We are very much close to the numbers of 2019. Therefore, the EBITDA is lower than 2019 because we had a clear target of increasing our capacity, our market share, and also strengthening our leadership position on the market.
In terms of the net profits, for the nine months, we have, I would say, also very positive results, which is very close to the numbers of 2019, just 15% lower than 2019. Now, if you look into more specific indicators of load, profit per pax and average package tour price, again, the pandemic environment and pandemic circumstances have brought us, let's say, a certain environment where the load, it's quite difficult to achieve to the same loads as we used to have in the pre-pandemic levels, which usually was around 97%.
Unfortunately, due to quite intense last-minute sales, due to all the COVID guarantees that we provide our customers, the load factor is still lower than usual. It is around 92%. Bit by bit, especially with the strengthening early booking sales and minimized last-minute sales, I would say that we should reach or achieve the previous pre-pandemic load factor indications. In terms of the profit per pax, I have already mentioned that the profit per pax on the third quarter was not our main, let's say, target. We were aiming on increasing our capacity. We have done, in general, as a charter tour operator, we have done it on a higher speed than the regular airlines or in general than the tourism industry recovery worldwide.
Therefore it is reflected in the profit per pax. The future shows that in the recovered market we can come back to our regular profit per pax indications. Finally, one very positive indicator, the average package tour price, which we see is increasing on a year-on-year basis. In 2021, despite quite intensive last-minute sales, we have in the third quarter EUR 707 per package tour price. For the nine months, we have EUR 725, which is higher in general than during pre-pandemic times. It shows that the clients are choosing more quality destinations, higher category and more quality hotels.
They are paying much more attention to the quality of their holidays, and that there is an economic potential as well for the travel business, not only to recover, but also to flourish, I would say, for the future. Finally, for the operating expenses, we are also having positive indicators compared to 2021 and 2019. In general, the total operating expenses of 2021 third quarter are more or less the same as they were in 2020. If compared to 2019, we have a decrease of 40%. If we include commissions and one-off expenses compared to 2019 for the third quarter, we have around 70% lower numbers. That's very positive.
Also the same trends are for nine months. During the nine months in as a total, operating expenses compared to 2020, we had very similar 13% lower than in 2020. But commissions, of course, were much higher due to higher operation, and the total operating expenses were increased by 41%. To sum up, I would say that we are continuously working on, of course, the costs control, but that's not the main point and not the main issue, because we are now with the market recovery, apart from controlling the costs which were optimized, I would say, to the maximum during the pandemic. We are working strongly on the business recovery, on the market recovery.
We are very much focused on the processes improvement and their automation, very much on the clients and market needs follow-up. We are expanding our products based on the market needs, selection-wise, price-wise, choice-wise, quality-wise. We are also working strongly on the client service and improvement of the client service. Of course, our main, I would say, one of the main focuses is distribution. Strengthening our cooperation with the travel agencies. Improving our e-commerce channel would be our main focus points, I would say.
Which would, of course, together with our products, with our method, let's say the general business and very much business decision, our business decisions would bring and would increase the value for the shareholders. From our side, that's it today. Now I would be very much pleased to answer to your questions.
Thank you very much for the presentation. As now we will proceed with the questions, I would like to remind all the attendees that you are very much welcome to send in your questions in the question box of your screen. Let's proceed with the questions that we already received, and the first one is as follows: Could you please comment on what is the current dividend policy, please? Thank you.
Currently, the management is not in a position to answer this question because this is decided during the shareholders meeting, of course, by proposals done by the management and boards. Of course, we have to consider the company's situation and the fact that it is the first year after the or during the pandemic when we see the recovery, a clear recovery of the business. However, the company strategy in terms of the dividends payments has not changed. We continue and we maintain the same strategy to pay from 70%-80% of our net profits as dividends to our shareholders. On the other one...
Once more, for this year, I unfortunately we are not in a position to answer.
Thank you very much. Another investor says, "Thank you for the presentation. Could you please explain the reasons behind very low profitability in Q3, and how you plan to overcome those reasons in the future? Thank you.
Well, I believe I already explained during my presentation that during the third quarter we have increased our capacity significantly. During the third quarter we are below 2019 numbers by 20%, which is a huge increase of the capacity compared to the previous quarters. The previous quarters were still. The market was recovering slowly. There was no, let's say we were during the first quarter and even the second quarter. I would say that we were the first tour operator to start the flights to certain destinations in general. Which of course also affected the profit margins and the overall, let's say, ratio between supply and demand.
Therefore, I would say that the first and second quarter were also exceptionally positive in terms of the profit margins because the market was still very much, if I can say, unstable, very much working and we had very low seat supply on the market. The third quarter is much more competitive and still the market we were, I would say with our planning capacity, we were much more aggressive than the market capacity in general, all the other competitors or the regular airlines. We have targeted ourselves to recover the market and to be the most aggressive in terms of the seats planning and the flights planning. Therefore, as mentioned already during my presentation, it affected in the lower profit per pax.
Mm-hmm. Thank you very much for your answer. Another question that we received is as following: More stable environment may mean higher competition and lower margins. What are your steps to restore profit per pax to regular levels as soon as possible? Thank you.
We are used to the competition, and the competition has been increasing during the previous years, but it did not really influence our capacities and our market position. We, during all those years, maintained our leadership position, and I would say that there are a lot of competitive advantages that Novaturas has compared to the competition in general. That's a huge diversity of the destinations, huge diversity of different categories of the products, starting from the sightseeing, skiing, long-haul destinations, holiday destinations. The already mentioned huge diversity of the holiday destinations. We have very strong position in main destinations, which are offered by many tour operators such as Turkey and Egypt.
We have really very good and important our hotels over there, where we can offer the biggest, the best value for money. On top of this, we also have exclusive and very undiscovered destinations. We have more than 45 destinations in our portfolio. One more very important thing is that we are also working in the Baltic markets and we are a Baltic markets group, so this allows us to work and according to the Baltic markets mentality, culture and needs. We are very fast in modifying our product according to the needs of the Baltic of our markets, of our clients. We are also very fast to make decisions client-focused and client-centered decisions in order to keep our client and to increase our clientele.
Knowing the client's culture and mentality of the Baltic markets and being very flexible to work according to this, I think it is also very important advantage compared to the maybe other companies which are belonging to bigger groups. As well, during our history, we have always paid a huge importance to our partnerships. We have long-term partnerships. We have very reliable partnerships with our destinations, with our air carriers, and we are working on the service improvement even more to the clients. I would say that there are a lot of different factors which define the leadership position on top of this, the strength of the brand.
We are the first tour operator to be established in the market with a leadership position during all the 22 years of the history. During the pandemic, we have just strengthened this our reputation among other tour operators. Plus also, I have to say that we are I would say the maybe the tour operator which has very well-balanced distribution and has very strong ties with the travel agents Baltic markets-wise. This is very important because you might have a perfect product, but without distribution you will not be able to sell it.
Having very strong ties with the B2B agents and having our own sales channels such as web and also our own front offices, it gives us, I would say, very stable and very confident position in the markets. Of course it does not mean that we are standing and waiting for the competition to change or for the market to change. We are proactively doing business decisions, leadership decisions, in order to be always in the frontline.
Thank you very much for your comment. Another question is as following: Is it good business strategy to have plenty of exotic destinations which have low share in revenue while competitors concentrate only to small number of core destinations? Thank you.
I would say that the long-haul destinations are not offered by many competitors. It is the company's decision how to act. We know the market very well, and we know that the long-haul destination clientele, they like, they usually are able to pay, and they like to choose from the variety. For us, this model has proved already since five years ago when we introduced it to the market. With this model we can offer the choice to the client, the choice of the destinations, the choice of the hotels, the choice of the dates, and also to provide with our usual service in those destinations.
The most important, with the very attractive prices, because by contacting the airlines and by having our strong contacts in the destinations, we have a very effective selling package rate. I cannot comment on the other models. I can just say that this has proved to us very successful and has been growing throughout the years. Unfortunately, pandemic stopped this. Bit by bit, once the other destinations, the long-haul destinations are opening, we are already recording already an increasing demand for our long-haul destinations.
On the other hand, I would say that, say, having a long-haul flight to the exotic destination with a quite high airfare price, and high capacity of the aircraft due to the model of the aircraft that can fly directly from the source market to the destination. Business-wise, I consider it quite a big risk, which can prove to be right, can prove depending on the market, depending on the destination, depending maybe on the strategy. It is as a tour operator from the perspective of the tour operator of the Baltic markets, I mean, and evaluating the risk, the risk in our case is much more maybe split among different destinations and minimized as much as possible also by providing the value to the clients.
Thank you very much. Another question is as following: How fuel prices influence your profit per pax this year, and what effect may be in fourth quarter of 2021, I guess, but it's written 2022, so thank you.
Basically, the package combines several components, not only fuel which is changing, but also even the, let's say, the hotel prices, the airfare, the fuel and many other components of the package, where we have to monitor the trends worldwide, and we have to accordingly modify our pricing and prices. That's done regularly. We are, I would say, as much as possible forecasting and accordingly including it in our net price calculations.
Thank you very much. As all the questions are answered on behalf of Nasdaq Vilnius, thank you, everyone. It was our pleasure being with you today. The recording of the presentation will be available in the Nasdaq Baltic YouTube channel. Thank you, dear management. Thank you, dear attendees. Have a good day, everyone, and goodbye.