Olympic flight curbs add to woes at Beijing Airport
Stephanie Tong
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Ten days before the Olympics, Beijing Capital International Airport (0694) issued a profit warning for its 2008 interim results on falling demand and rising costs.
BCIA, operator of Asia's second busiest airport, said net profit for the six months ended June 30, 2008 may fall significantly from 567 million yuan (HK$648 million) in the first half of 2007. "The significant decrease is due to the implementation of the restrictions on flight throughput of the company by the Civil Aviation Administration of China in 2008 first quarter," said company chairman Wang Jiadong.
First Shanghai Securities strategist Linus Yip Sheung-chi said: "We thought air traffic would increase because of the Beijing Olympics. The restriction shows that the mainland government places much concern on security." BCIA added that the slowdown of the global economy also weakened aviation transportation demand. Hit by high jet fuel prices, the company has cancelled flights or even postponed plans to increase certain airlines.
"The poor results is within my expectation. After all, its 2007 results showed very slow growth," said Yip.
Net profit of the airport operator rose a mere 3.4 percent to 1.13 billion yuan.
In 2008 fiscal, BCIA is expected to report similar profit growth as the company in January announced plans to spend 26.9 billion yuan to acquire terminal number 3 of the Beijing Capital Airport from its parent company.