KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 17 — Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) expects its operation at Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (ISG) to return to profitability when the business recovers to pre-pandemic level, which is likely to happen in 2024-2025.
ISG executive director Mohd Nazli Aziz said the recovery prospect looked promising in view of ISG being one of the fastest recovering airports in Europe, thanks to the Turkish government’s strong support for the tourism sector and keeping the borders open, coupled with an influx of travelers from Russia.
Additionally, greater access to Covid-19 vaccine and the current low valuation of the Turkish lira compared with other major currencies, which motivates people to visit Turkey for a holiday, would also drive ISG’s recovery, he said.
“We are very bullish because we believe that a point-to-point travel will be greater after the pandemic and we are a point-to-point airport.
“We expect that once passenger traffic reaches the same level in 2019, we will be back to being profitable. That would be the logical assumption because our revenue and profitability is very dependent on passenger numbers,” he told a media briefing titled “In Conversation with Malaysia Airports: ISG-An Emerging City Airport” held virtually today.
“Of course, we will continue doing the necessary cost containment initiatives and find ways to increase our non-aeronautical revenue,” he added.
Within the last decade, MAHB has successfully grown ISG into one of the major aviation hubs in Europe.
Year-to-date, ISG’s traffic contribution to the group is about 80 per cent.
Total passenger volume at ISG, which was at 36 million in 2019, dropped to 17.2 million in 2020 due to Covid-19.
Nevertheless, passenger movements recovered to 3.2 million in August 2021, equivalent to 90 per cent of the pre-pandemic volume of August 2019, led by summer travel surge.
The Turkish aviation authority expects the industry to reach between 90 per cent and 95 per cent of the 2019 level by next summer.
Updating on the new second runway at ISG, Mohd Nazli said the construction process experienced a slight delay due to the pandemic while the local authority also reinforced the design due to the recent earthquake in Izmir.
According to him, a two-runway system at ISG is expected to be operational by the second half of 2022, which will increase the total capacity from about 50 flight movements per hour to 80 flight movements per hour.
Commenting on market talk that MAHB would pare down its equity interest in ISG, Mohd Nazli said that MAHB’s focus was on recovery, adding there was also no plan to buy equity interest in other airports for the time being.
“Of course, people will approach us, but it’s a pandemic. (Our focus) should be (on) recovering and not investing,” he added. — Bernama
