Macau’s airport operator CAM said in a statement yesterday that it was “hit hard” by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the first quarter of the year, admitting that its profitability prospects for this year are uncertain.
“Aviation industry demand has slumped drastically,” the statement said, pointing out that in the first quarter the airport’s passenger and flight movements dropped 45 percent and 55 percent respectively.
The statement said that CAM set up a contingency working group in January to tackle the COVID-19 impact, adding that in response to the crisis it has decided to reduce some of its fees for the period between Feburary1 and April 30, involving about 25 million patacas.
According to the statement, the company’s 2019 net profit after tax reached 617 million patacas, “the 8th consecutive profitable year.” CAM’s total income reached 1.82 billion patacas last year, up 16.5 percent year-on-year, comprising 795 million patacas from aeronautical revenue and 1.02 billion patacas from non-aeronautical revenue.
The statement said that CAM earnt a profit of 714 million patacas before preferred dividends last year, and after the provision for the distribution of 2019 preferred dividends.
According to the statement, the total income of the major operators at the airport is estimated to have reached 6.27 billion patacas last year, a year-on-year growth of 13.6 percent.
