KUALA LUMPURL: Malaysia Airports Holdings, a state-run airport operator, on Thursday said its net profit plunged 84% year-on-year in the third quarter mainly due to higher tax expenses and a wider loss at its overseas operations.
Net profit for the three months ended Sept. 30 totaled 10.7 million ringgit ($2.6 million) compared with 68.5 million ringgit during the same quarter last year, Malaysia Airports said in an exchange filing. Quarterly revenue however rose 5.9% to 1.08 billion ringgit from 1.02 billion ringgit a year earlier.
The company said passenger traffic at its Malaysian operations in the fourth quarter is likely to “outperform the rest of the year due to improved load factors and increased airline seat capacity.”
Growth at its international operations in the near term meanwhile is expected to be “predominantly domestic driven as sentiment continues to recover,” the company added.
Malaysia Airports, the world’s second largest airport company by passengers handled, manages more than three dozen airports in Malaysia including the country’s main gateway Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The company also owns the Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen International Airport.
The Sabiha Gokcen airport, acquired in 2015, has been one of main growth drivers for Malaysia Airports, until a bombing at nearby Ataturk Airport in June followed by a failed military coup hurt tourist arrivals in Turkey.
“Daily passenger movements from the Turkey operations has since stabilized and exceeded the levels prior to incidences in June and July with significant improvements noted particularly in September 2016,” Malaysia Airports noted.
In the third quarter, passenger traffic at its Malaysian operations rose 9.4% year-on-year to 23 million movements while its overseas airports saw a 3.1% decline. Passenger traffic typically swells in the final months of the year amid peak seasonal travel demand from festivals and long holidays.
“Both local and foreign carriers continued with impressive growth at KLIA in the third quarter with most sectors to North Asia and the Middle East recording strong growth” Malaysia Airports said. “Similarly, India and Singapore sectors also registered double digit growth for the period.”
