THAILAND. Airports of Thailand’s (AoT) profit dropped by -44% or THB 300 million (US$7.2 million) in the first half of the 2003 fiscal year because of SARS, according to AoT acting managing director Bancha Pattanaporn.
For the period, ended March, only Bangkok airport of the country’s airports posted an increase in passenger numbers (a marginal + 0.7%), while Chiang Mai, Hat Yai, Phuket and Chiang Rai saw declines of -2.9%, -5.9%, -1.1% and -11.8% percent, respectively.
The impact of SARS saw AoT’s operational income in April drop by -37.0% to THB 421.2 million (US$10.1 million) compared with the same period last year. AoT’s total passenger numbers also slumped by -35% in the first two weeks of May. International travellers decreased by -42%, while local traffic was down -10%. Bancha said he believes the impact of SARS will be less next month.
“Last year, AoT had seven billion baht of revenue. If the impact of SARS reduces in June, AoT will be able to clear up the loss,” he said. AoT has cut rents by -10% for commercial tenants at its Bangkok domestic terminal and, as previously revealed on The Moodie Report, by -20% for retail and other tenants at the international terminal.
Note: The Moodie Report has been monitoring the effect of SARS since early March. Click on the special SARS feature (updated daily) on our home page to track the spread of the disease, the latest WHO numbers and detailed commentary on how travel retail is being affected.
