THAILAND. Airports of Thailand (AOT) has posted an -87.94% fall year-on-year in its second-quarter concession revenues to just Bt358.98 million (US$11.4 million) as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to restrain inbound and outbound travel and concessionaire relief measures remained in place.
For the six months ended 31 March, concession revenues slumped by over -90% to Bt717.1 million (US$23 million).
Overall non-aeronautical revenues fell -76.64% in Q2 to Bt1,205.23 million (US$38.4 million) and -79.67% for the first half to Bt2,491.60 million (US$79.5 million) (see charts below).
The figures were prompted by a sharp -75.2% decline in first-half passenger traffic, with AOT airports serving just 400,000 international passengers and 15.4 million domestic travellers across the six-month period.
The need for widespread and sustained relief packages also hit revenues. “In the current situation, AOT continuously imposes measures to assist concessionaires and airlines affected by COVID-19 to reflect the air traffic volume for each airport, defer the compensation payment, rental fees, and service charges to concessionaires and airlines affected by the COVID-19 pandemic at six airports under AOT’s responsibility to lessen their burden during the crisis period,” the company said.
The company said that based on a current assessment of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, air traffic volumes at the airports under its jurisdiction could recover to fiscal year 2019 levels by fiscal year 2023.
However, AOT warned that if Thailand opens its borders later than January 2022 – potentially due to factors relating to the COVID-19 vaccine – recovery to 2019 traffic levels may not be seen before fiscal year 2024.
