28 March 2013
Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) said work on the low-cost carrier terminal in Sepang (klia2) is on target to reach its June 28 opening, dismissing concerns about a delay in the terminal’s completion.
Its chairman Tan Sri Dr Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Abdullah said 82% of work has been completed including the air traffic control tower.
"We’re still keeping the original target completion date and we’re monitoring closely the progress on the construction of the terminal," he told a news conference after the airport operator’s AGM here yesterday.
The passenger terminal will have a gross floor area of 257,000 cu m, a 71% increase from the existing 150,000 cu m, and will be able to accommodate up to 45 million passengers per year when it opens in June.
MAHB expects to achieve passenger growth of 7.1% this year, assuming gross domestic product growth remains between 5% and 6% as well as global economic environment and jet fuel prices remain stable.
"The entry of new airlines such as Malindo Air, Air France and Turkish Airlines as well as Malaysia Airlines‘ entry in the oneworld alliance bode well for Malaysian aviation," said Wan Abdul Aziz.
He also said MAHB remains in talks with British Airways and Australia’s Qantas to resume operations to Kuala Lumpur, but nothing is firm yet. Both British Airways and Qantas ceased flights to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in 2001 and 2000 respectively due to commercial reasons.
Currently, 56 airlines fly into the KLIA.
Meanwhile, MAHB CFO Faizal Mansor expects its retail revenue comprising duty free and food and beverage operations, will surge 60% to RM800 million this year from RM500 million last year.
"The retail business currently contributes almost 25% or about RM500 million in revenue. If you take up construction revenue it’s about RM1.5 billion. Our total revenue is about RM2.1 billion now.
"We are very ambitious this year, especially with the opening of klia2," he said.
On revenue from its foreign airport operations, Faizal said its contribution is marginal totalling less than RM10 million.
"It’s actually very minimal at the moment because we don’t hold the controlling stake. We only hold investment stakes but we’re definitely moving towards having a larger contribution coming from overseas investments," he said.
He said MAHB is on the lookout for new foreign airport investments despite having lost out on its recent bid for Stansted Airport in London, jointly made with YTL Corp Bhd. Manchester Airport Group’s winning bid of ?.5 billion (RM7.03 billion) was 50% above the reported offer by MAHB-YTL Corp.
"Whenever there are some other good opportunities that crop up, we will make the necessary evaluation on whether we should proceed to bid or not.
"There’s ongoing evaluation on various opportunities for airport investments out there," said Faizal.
For the financial year ended Dec 31, 2012 (FY12), the group’s revenue grew 28.8% to RM3.55 billion from RM2.75 billion a year ago. It outperformed its FY12 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) target of RM909.9 million with RM929.7 million.
Faizal said it aims to hit the RM1 billion mark in ebitda by end of next year.
Earlier during the AGM, MAHB shareholders approved a final dividend of 7.63%.
Source: www.thesundaily.my
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