KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) drowned in red ink with a net loss of RM20.39 million in the first-quarter (Q1) ended March 31, 2020, from a net profit of RM149.58 million a year ago.
In an exchange filing today, the airport operator said this was due to a decrease in contribution from aeronautical and non-aeronautical segments, resulting from the impact of Covid-19 pandemic and travel restriction.
Its Q1 revenue dropped 25.6 per cent to RM933.84 million from RM1.25 billion previously, owing to contraction in passenger movements of 23.9 per cent (25.5 million passengers).
MAHB said its network of airports traffic for international and domestic passengers had contracted 28.0 per cent and 20.1 per cent respectively.
Correspondingly, the group's aircraft movements decreased 11.8 per cent with both international and domestic aircraft movements slipping 16.1 per cent and 8.9 per cent respectively.
"Passenger traffic at our operated airports contracted by 27.6 per cent with 18.4 million passengers in Q1 this year.
"Traffic for international and domestic passengers contracted by 32.8 per cent to 8.8 million passengers and 22.0 per cent to 9.6 million passengers, respectively."
MAHB said the overall passenger movements for its local network of airports had been affected by the travel restrictions imposed since March due to Covid-19.
However, it said there was a small number of Malaysian passenger arrivals from repatriation flights at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and who further continued to travel domestically via KLIA.
Meanwhile, MAHB's Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (SGIA) passenger traffic contracted by 12.3 per cent to 7.1 million passengers in Q1.
International and domestic passenger contracted by 6.7 per cent and 15.7 per cent respectively.
"ISGIA passenger movements experienced a decline in passengers following the suspension of flights imposed to certain countries in stages and later to all international destinations announced by the Turkish government from March 28.
"However, a few cargo and charter flights are expected to take place in May with Pegasus and Turkish Airlines planning to resume operations from May 28."
MAHB said air travel demand might resume if the risks associated with Covid-19 had been mitigated both in Malaysia as well as countries which its airports have flight connections to.