Flying on profit fumes

Air Macau posted a year-on-year fall of 70.6 per cent for its net profit to 31 million yuan (MOP38.2 million/US$4.8 million) for the whole year of 2015, in the wake of lower revenues generated, according to the 2015 annual report released yesterday by parent company Air China Ltd.
Last year, the local flag carrier saw its revenues dip 9.29 per cent year-on-year to 2.45 billion yuan, of which air traffic revenue amounted to1.93 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 7.45 per cent.
Air China did not expand on the reasons its subsidiary raked in less earnings in 2015.
For the twelve months, Air Macau carried some 2.31 million passengers, an increase of 8.79 per cent year-on-year, whilst its average passenger load factor is down 1.12 percentage points year-on-year to 67.1 per cent.
According to the report, the locally based airline’s revenue passenger kilometres (RPK), a measure of sales volume of passenger traffic, actually jumped 9.27 per cent year-on-year. Its available seat kilometre (ASK), used to measure an airline’s capacity to transport passengers, is up 11.1 per cent year-on-year.
More cargo carried
In terms of air cargo, Air Macau carried a total of 17,153 tonnes of cargo and mail last year, growing 7.84 per cent year-on-year. The load factor for the sector, however, declined by 1.8 percentage points to 27.83 per cent compared to last year.
The airline’s revenue freight tone kilometre (RFTK), an indicator of an airline’s freight traffic volume, registered a year-on-year increase of 6.7 per cent. Its available freight tonne kilometre (AFTK), which shows the company’s available cargo capacity, rose by 12.9 per cent year-on-year.
As at last year-end, Air Macau operated a fleet of 18 aircraft with an average age of 9.32 years. The flag carrier, established in 1994 with a registered capital of MOP442 million is 66.9 per cent owned by Air China.
Parent’s net profit soars
Last year, Air China’s profit attributable to equity shareholders of the company totalled 7.06 billion yuan, soaring 83.3 per cent compared to 3.85 billion yuan for 2014. But the national flag carrier’s revenues for the year posted only a slight growth of some 3.9 per cent to 110 million yuan.
The airline carried 89.8 million passengers last year, which is an increase of 8.2 per cent year-on-year. In addition, its operated flights for the twelve months rose 7.6 per cent year-on-year to 615,912 flights.