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Malta Airport registers 14% increase in interim profits
MIA revised forecast for passengers movements upwards to 3.63 million for 2013
7 August 2013, 12:00am
Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
2 min read
Malta International Airport has proposed a net interim dividend of €0.03 per share on all shares after announcing an interim profit of €5.11 million, up by 14.1% over the same period (€4.48m).
Announcing its interim statements for 30 June 2013, MIA said the group's turnover of €25.2 million was significantly higher than the same period last year (€22.7 million), reflecting the increase in passenger numbers and the increase in non-aviation revenue from subsidiaries Skyparks Business Centre and Airport Parking Ltd.
Revenue from the airport segment compared to total revenue decreased from 71.9% to 69.8%, whilst the revenue from the retail and property segment increased from 27% to 29.5%.
Staff costs increased from €3.7 million to €3.9 million largely due to contractual collective agreements and a staff early retirement scheme carried out in the first quarter of 2013. Both operating costs and depreciation costs have also increased to reflect the additional commercial activity generated by Skyparks Business Centre. In the first six months of 2012, Skyparks Business Centre was not operational.
The profit for the period is €5.11 million compared to the €4.48 million for the same period in 2012, an increase of 14.1%.
Passenger movements in the first six months of 2013 increased by 9.2% over the corresponding period of 2012, reaching 1.73 million passengers (2012 - 1.58 million). This growth was driven by a 7.6% increase in capacity coupled with a one percentage point increase in seat load factor.
"Taking into account these traffic results for the first six months of the year and the revised schedule of traffic for the rest of 2013, we are revising our forecast for the entire 2013 from 3.63 million passenger movements to 3.89 million. This is 6.7% more than the passenger movements of 2012," MIA said in a statement.
New tenants continued to take up residence at Skyparks Business Centre during the first six months of 2013. The fitting out process of the various offices is taking more time than anticipated but all areas are expected to be made available to tenants by the end of 2013. It is estimated that a further €2 million will be required to complete the building to the internal fit-out standards contracted by prospective tenants. So far 90% of the available space in the building is covered by lease agreements in hand, some of which are yet to commence.
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What is the real formula for these profits. Is it the foreign management who do not have to cater to our political pressure? My guess would be Yes. Political favours is what ruins most Government operations and Malta and Maltese politicians depend on such favours for their votes. That is why I respect Air Malta's CEO Davies because the first thing he did as the CEO of Air Malta was to take away all the Freebie Perks away from the politicians and their families, which no other Maltese CEO would have done. Nepotism and favours are the best friends of all Maltese politicians and until that bad habit is tranquilized there can be very little respect and profitability. We see this happening in our courts, our contract offerings, our oil procurements etc. Respect is something you earn and it not something you buy and barter.
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Some contributors wear blinkers! Serious investors produce good results. Those who believed in the project, including many local investors, invested in MIA and have been amply rewarded for their participation. 'The bunch of foreigners' actually ploughs back many millions of euro every year into 'our' airport, with the result that MIA is regularly rewarded by being listed as the top airport in its category in Europe.
Joseph MELI •
And we handed control of the MIA over to a bunch of foreigners for literally some coloured beads and a lot of firewater -which obviously impacted upon such a crass decision.
