Malaysia Airlines cuts Q1 loss
Contributors are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the contributor directly
Malaysia Airlines has improved its first quarter financial performance, but still sank to an operating loss of MYR165 million (US$53.7m) for the three-month period.
Following two consecutive quarterly profits at the back-end of 2012, MAS continued the series of year-on-year improvements in terms of its operational performance and revenue in the first quarter of 2013. The airline carried 17% more passengers than in Q1 2012 and generated 14% more revenue. The group also expanded available seat capacity by 11% as flight frequencies increased 9%.
This helped the airline reduce its operating loss by 46%, from MYR307m in Q1 2012 to MYR165m in the first three months of this year. Unfortunately, foreign exchange losses caused the airline’s net loss to widen to MYR279m, from MYR172m in the same period last year.
“Our operating statistics are strong and recording encouraging traction to build up our passenger numbers and growth. These have enabled our group to generate positive cash balance, and essentially stop the bleeding. However we still have a lot of work to do to align costs to revenue, to increase productivity and efficiency, and improve yields,” said Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, group CEO of MAS.
The first quarter is traditionally the weakest three months of the year for airline, but MAS still managed to increase group revenue by 14% to MYR3.55 billion. Company expenses also increased however, rising 8% to MYR3.71m. Jet fuel accounted for 37% of the airline’s total expenses.
MAS added that Asia Pacific is expected to be the “growth centre of aviation demand”, and that it plans to increase its footprint in the region.