KLIA2 40% completed

SEPANG: Airport operator Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) is more than 40% into the construction of KL International Airport 2 (KLIA2), its official said. MAHB chief financial officer Faizal Mansor said that road works linking KLIA2 were underway and building structures were being put in place.

More details on the progress of the permanent low-cost carrier terminal would be announced soon, he told reporters yesterday at the company's second-quarter results briefing. Faizal also said that the cost of development for KLIA2 remained at the estimated RM2bil “until an update was made otherwise” and it was working towards the October 2012 completion deadline.

A model of the KLIA2.

For its second quarter ended June 30, MAHB posted a net profit of RM81.8mil against RM59.6mil posted a year earlier. Its revenue for the quarter grew 25% to RM654.23mil from RM525.01mil made one year ago, mainly due to recognition of construction revenue for KLIA2 and Penang International Airport.

As of this financial year, MAHB has adopted the IC interpretation 12: service concession agreements (IC12), an accounting treatment that recognises construction revenue from airports being built or upgraded. Construction revenue for the quarter and six-month period were RM182mil and RM337.1mil respectively, with 95% of the revenue coming from KLIA2.

Stripping out the construction revenue, the consolidated revenue for the three months ended June 30 was higher by 8.4% at RM472.2mil. Revenue for the quarter under review improved owing to positive growth of 7.3% from airport operations, driven by an increase in non-aeronautical revenue of 14.9% which was mostly derived from the group's retail business. Passenger movement was 6.8% higher than the corresponding period last year, in which the international and domestic passenger movements increased 2.6% and 11% respectively.

For the six months ended June 30, MAHB made a net profit of RM170.1mil compared with RM132.8mil from a year ago. Revenue was up 24% to RM1.26bil from RM1.02bil for the first half of its financial year ending Dec 31. Stripping out the construction revenue, the consolidated revenue for the six months ended June 30 was higher by 6.4% at RM927.5mil. The group saw its airport operations business grow 5.4% as well as a 19.6% growth in the non-airport operations business. Positive growth in the airport operations was driven by a 16.3% improvement in the retail business.

Passenger movement for the six months under review were 12.6% higher than the year before, in which the growth for international passengers was 13.5% while domestic passenger growth was 11.8%. While MAHB has forecasted passenger growth of some 8% to 9% for this year, Faizal said the airport operator may achieve double-digit growth in passenger movement. “Another trend we used to see at KLIA and the low-cost carrier terminal was 60% of the passenger movement came from domestic flights while the balance was from international flights. But now, both domestic and international passengers account for 50% each, thus proving that KLIA is increasingly becoming an international hub,” he said.

MAHB expects another two to three new airlines to start flying into KLIA. Faizal added that with Malaysia Airlines now part of the Oneworld alliance, the airport operator had started talks with British Airways and Australia's Qantas Airways about both airlines possibly re-looking at flying into KLIA. “That will help us make KLIA a stronger hub but we will leave it to the airlines to make the relevant announcements,” he said, when asked if the airlines had given a timeframe in wanting to resume flights to Kuala Lumpur.

-thestar online.