MAHB Cautiously Optimistic Of Achieving 83 Million Passengers

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 13 (Bernama) -- Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) is cautiously optimistic the full-year passenger traffic should not be significantly different from the base case target of over 83 million passengers in spite of the unprecedented nature of sequence of incidents.

In a statement to Bursa Malaysia today, MAHB said the impact from MH370 and MH17 remained a concern especially for its operations, given the unprecedented incidents affecting the airline within a short period of time.

The airport operator said the full-year growth prospect remained softer than actual traffic growth to-date.

"The current global geopolitical events, especially in the Middle East, have an impact on the traffic growth. "In addition, if the conflicts escalate, it may have an impact on jet fuel price, although this is not immediately apparent at this point," it said.

MAHB said the lower global gross domestic product forecast by International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the ebola outbreak that had spread to Europe could impact traffic negatively.

IMF has revised the global economy forecast to 3.3 per cent from 3.7 per cent in April and 3.4 per cent in July 2014. The 2015 forecast was also lowered by another 0.2 per cent to 3.8 per cent in October.

The seat capacity offered by airlines for the next three months remains optimistic in the range of 5.1 per cent average.
-bernama.