Profits in freefall

The city’s flag carrier Air Macau Co Ltd saw its net profit decline year-on-year by 74.4 percent in the first half despite growth registered in the number of passengers, a further slide when compared with the same period last year.
Air Macau, a subsidiary of state-owned mainland China operator Air China Ltd, saw its net profit decline 74.4 percent to 21 million yuan (US$3.4 million, MOP27.2 million). These latest results reveal a further pinch in profits for the flagship carrier as it had already registered a 15.2 percent drop in net profits for the first half of last year to 82 million yuan.
The first half results of Air Macau – released on Tuesday night – were only briefly mentioned in the half-year financial report by its parent company Air China.
Business Daily approached Air Macau for comment on the profit decline but had not received a reply by the time the story went to press.
Total Air Macau revenue in the six months to June rose 5.5 percent to nearly 1.315 billion yuan – the majority of the revenue, 1.311 billion yuan, was derived from the aviation business.
For the first half of this year, Air Macau’s passenger numbers surged by 19.7 percent year-on-year to 1.02 million. The carrier’s average seat occupancy rate, however, only inched up by 1.08 percentage points to 67.97 percent.
The local flagship carrier recorded revenues of nearly 11.3 million patacas from its cargo traffic in the first half of the year, a rise of 19.4 percent when compared to that of a year earlier.
Air Macau operates more than 20 routes, of which most ply between here and major cities in mainland China.
As at June 30 this year, Air Macau operated 15 aircraft. During this six-month period, the carrier had added one new aircraft to its fleet, which has an average age of 11.39 years.