MAHB sees strong quarters ahead on better traffic

PETALING JAYA: After starting the financial year 2024 (FY24) with a net profit increase of more than three-fold in the first quarter (1Q24) due to higher passenger volume, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) has hinted at strong quarters ahead as this year’s passenger traffic is expected to further recover closer to pre-pandemic levels.

For 1Q24 ended March 31, the airport operator’s net profit jumped to RM189.99mil from RM58.19mil in 1Q23 as revenue rose by 30.6% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM1.35bil in the period.

Earnings per share for the quarter amounted to 10.53 sen. The group did not declare any dividend for the first quarter.

The growth was driven by higher passenger volume resulting from the new airlines’ operations, school holiday break, Chinese New Year festive season and the implementation of the 30-day visa-free waiver for inbound travellers from China and India into Malaysia.

MAHB manages 39 airports across Malaysia – including five international airports – as well as one international airport in Turkiye.

A consortium led by Khazanah Nasional Bhd and the Employees Provident Fund is now in the midst of privatising MAHB, partly to speed up improvement in service quality at MAHB-run airports.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, MAHB said its revenue from airport operations increased by 31.7% y-o-y to RM1.27bil in 1Q24.

Aeronautical segment revenue increased by 11.6% y-o-y to RM733.9mil, driven by the growth in traffic, with total passenger numbers reaching 31.3 million.

Its Malaysian operations alone contributed 21.8 million passengers compared to 18.7 million passengers in the corresponding quarter in the prior year.

Its Turkiye operations continued to show passenger traffic growth, increasing from 8.1 million to 9.5 million passengers during the same period.

Non-aeronautical segment revenue increased from RM406.9mil to RM531.8mil, largely due to better contribution of commercial revenue from Malaysia and Turkiye operations.

“Revenue from the non-airport operations increased by 16.1% or RM11.9mil from RM73.7mil to RM85.6mil due to higher revenue from hotel, agriculture, project and repair maintenance businesses.

“Overall, Malaysia and Turkiye operations had recorded an increase in revenue by 35% from RM632.2mil to RM853.2mil and by 25% from RM377.4mil to RM471.8mil, respectively.

“Meanwhile, Qatar operations recorded a marginal increase in revenue from RM24.8mil to RM26.3mil,” MAHB stated.