MAHB revenue impacted by Covid-19 travel curbs

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) sank into the red in its first quarter ended March 31, as revenue was impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and travel curbs imposed by Malaysia and other countries.

The airport operator reported a net loss of Rm20.39mil, a stark contrast from the net profit of Rm149.58mil a year ago. Revenue fell 25.4% to Rm933.84mil from Rm1.25bil a year ago.

Loss per share was at 2.09 sen compared with an earnings per share of 8.16 sen previously.

It had declared a single-tier final dividend of 10 sen per share amounting to Rm165.9mil for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2019, which was paid out on May 21, 2020.

MAHB manages, operates and maintains Turkey’s Istanbul Sabiha Gokcern International Airport (ISGIA).

It provides facilities management services at Qatar’s Hamad International Airport (HIA). It manages about 40 airports across Malaysia.

The Covid-19 pandemic has really pummeled airport operations around the world. MAHB’S passenger traffic contracted for both its local airports and international operations.

Passenger traffic for the Malaysian operations contracted by 27.6% to 18.4 million versus 25.4 million passengers a year ago.

Passenger traffic for its Turkey operations, meanwhile, contracted by 12.3% to 7.1 million passengers from 8.1 million a year ago.

It said revenue from the aeronautical segment decreased by 22.3% to Rm502.3mil from a year ago.

Revenue from its non-aeronautical segment decreased by 28.6% to Rm375.4mil.