Airport of Thailand’s net profit for its third quarter fell by 84 per cent despite recording higher traffic.

The company has blamed the current dispute and court case involving King Power over the management of duty-free shops as the reason for the drop in profit.

King Power operates stores at Suvarnabhumi Airport and was recently suspended while the case is being held, so the AOT did not include King Power’s trading figures in its reporting.

‘A decrease in airports’ commercial revenues stemming from the King Power case was the main cause of the drop in net profit, despite our foreign exchange gains,’ an AOT official said.

Airport of Thailand said that the net profit was 331 million baht, down from 2 billion baht from the previous year.

The revenue for AOT had increased by 17.9 per cent to 4.6 billion baht. At the same time, the fleet had increased in size by 11.9 per cent and the number of travellers it carried also increased by 5.2 per cent.

AOT’s net profit was 82.9 per cent lower than the previous year in the nine months prior to June, at 1.55 billion baht with its revenue soon rising by 12 per cent to 13.7 billion baht.
Airports of Thailand encompass 6 international airports under its administration, namely Don Muang International Airport, Chiang Mai International Airport, Hat Yai International Airport, Phuket International Airport, Chiang Rai International Airport and the new Suvarnabhumi Airport.

Source: eTravelBlackboardAsia