OR Tambo in Johannesburg, managed by Acsa. File photo: ANA
Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) has reported a R1 billion loss for the year ended 31 March, 2022, down from a loss of R2.6bn the previous year, signifying narrowing losses with traffic volumes remaining below pre-pandemic levels.
Acsa yesterday said the 2021/22 financial results largely reflected a difficult operating environment following the Covid-19 pandemic and last year’s July civil unrest.
Acsa chief executive Mpumi Mpofu said that even though this year’s performance had been much better than the previous year, the persistently tough operating environment has somewhat slowed down recovery.
Revenue was R3.9bn for the 12-month period, up by 81 percent from the R2.2bn reported in the previous financial year.
Mpofu said that the recovery that occurred during the reporting period was supported by a gradual and intermittent recovery in passenger numbers in comparison to the previous year.
“As severe travel restrictions began to be lifted both at home and abroad, the demand for air travel increased. The Acsa network recovered to 49 percent of its pre-Covid passenger throughput by March 31, 2022,” Mpofu said.
“Domestic travel accounted for 83 percent of passenger traffic during the reporting period. We are still experiencing 30 percent less volumes than in pre-Covid-19 travel, but the domestic market has been instrumental in driving our performance during the period under review.
“In contrast, international traffic, hampered by the impact of the Omicron variant in the third quarter of the financial year, only recovered to 28 percent of its pre-pandemic level.”
Aircraft landings increased by 105 percent to 176 816 from 86 434 in the previous year and departing passenger numbers improved by 131 percent to 10.5 million from 4.6 million.
Aeronautical revenue improved significantly by 121.7 percent to R1.8bn, up from R810 million, due to the increase in aircraft landings and departing passenger numbers during the period.
Non-aeronautical revenue increased by 57.1 percent to R2.1bn, from R1.3bn in 2021 due to increased passenger numbers, as well as the lifting of certain trade restrictions during the various levels of lockdown.
Retail revenue increased by 95.8 percent to R607m from R310m in 2021 due to increased traffic volumes.
However, this should be seen within the context of a reduction of 15.1 percent in retail revenue per passenger to R57.56 from R67.77 in 2021, meaning there was less spend per passenger.
Acsa’s operating expenditure increased by 3.9 percent to R2bn from R1.9bn the previous year.
It said the cost reduction initiatives introduced in the previous financial year continued to minimise operating costs, which have been maintained at 75.2 percent of pre-pandemic levels.
Meanwhile, the Portfolio Committee on Transport yesterday unanimously agreed to summon the Acsa management to account on the graft and corruption allegations on the vegetation control and grass cutting tender for OR Tambo International Airport.
Earlier this month, “The Sunday Independent” revealed that Acsa recently appointed a company that was in the process of deregistration when it was awarded the contract for vegetation control and grass-cutting service provider at OR Tambo International Airport.
Democratic Alliance spokesperson on transport Thamsanqa Mabhena said the management at Acsa ought to be held accountable and further action needed to be taken against the alleged perpetrators.
“Consequences of this graft resulted in the fire that led to the destruction of stationary aircrafts at the airport,” Mabhena said.
“This incident is not only damaging to the image of the Acsa both domestic and internationally but that of South Africa as well in the global aviation space.”
BUSINESS REPORT