Moody's: Malaysia Airport's 1Q2016 Results In Line With Expectations

KUALA LUMPUR, April 29 (Bernama) -- Moody's Investors Service says that Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd's (MAHB) operating results for the first-quarter 2016 are within its expectations and continue to support the company's A3 issuer rating and the stable outlook on the rating. "MAHB's first-quarter results ended March 31 are in line with our expectations," said Moody's Vice President and Senior Analyst Ray Tay in a statement here. During the quarter, growth in passenger traffic in Malaysia continued to show positive traction, and its wholly-owned Sabiha Gokcen International Airport in Istanbul continued to record double-digit growth in passenger traffic, he said. MAHB's reported revenue increased by 16.4 per cent to US$261.98 million (RM1.02 billion) as compared to the corresponding period in 2015. MAHB's Malaysian passenger traffic segment recorded 21.1 million passenger movements during 1Q2016, a 3.4 per cent growth over the figure recorded in 1Q2015. Traffic at its Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport meanwhile continued to show double-digit growth of 19.6 per cent to 6.7 million passenger movements. Moody's expects growth in passenger traffic for MAHB's Malaysian operations will increase to around 1.0-3.0 per cent for full-year 2016, due to a recovery in sentiment from the series of airline disasters that occurred in 2014, and the completion of route rationalisation by Malaysia Airlines Bhd (unrated) in 2016. "In fact, these two factors led to a marginal 0.6 per cent growth in passenger traffic for its Malaysian operations during 2015," it said. Code-sharing arrangements and the entry of new airline operators in its Malaysian segment will also lend some support to Moody's expectation that MAHB will record increased traffic growth for 2016, it added. --BERNAMA