State-owned Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) reported a loss of R1-billion for the 2021/22 financial year, which is an improvement on the R2.6-billion loss reported in the previous financial year.

Speaking during ACSA’s year-end financial results presentation on September 15, ACSA CEO Mpumi Mpofu said the year’s performance was, overall, much better than the previous two years, even though a persistently tough operating environment had somewhat slowed down recovery.

Overall, the company reported an improvement in financial performance and outlook over the previous year. The performance was, however, affected by two waves of Covid-19 and civil unrest in July last year.

Overall, traffic volumes more than doubled compared with the previous year but remained far below prepandemic levels.

Mpofu said the recovery was uneven, with domestic and regional traffic recovering to 58% and 36% of prepandemic levels, respectively. In contrast, international traffic was hampered by the impact of travel restrictions and the onset of the Omicron variant in the third quarter of the financial year and, therefore, only recovered to 29% of prepandemic levels.

ACSA reported R3.9-billion in revenue for the year, which was up 81% from the R2.2-billion reported in the 2020/21 financial year. The airports company also reported positive earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of R342-million for the financial year in review, which was a significant improvement over the loss before taxes, appreciation and amortisation of R1.8-billion in the prior year.

ACSA did report lower capital expenditure (capex) than planned. With a target of R973-million, the company only spent R546-million for the year, which ACSA CFO Siphamandla Mthethwa attributed to “implementation challenges”.

He said the overall financial position of the company remained robust, with a strong asset base and relatively low levels of debt.

The capex programme continued to be limited to maintenance and refurbishment, as part of ACSA’s recover and sustain strategy. Meanwhile, the cost reduction initiatives introduced in the previous financial year continue to contribute positively to the bottom line, Mthethwa said.

In terms of aeronautical revenue, ACSA performed better than the previous year by 57.1% to R2.1-billion, up from R1.3-billion, which took into account rental revenue reprieves for struggling customers of R591-million, which was significantly less than the R1.4-billion in reprieves from the previous year that were granted to tenants to offset the negative impact of the pandemic.

However, aeronautical revenue improved significantly by 121.7% year-on-year, from R810-million to R1.8-billion. The improvement was owing to an increase in aircraft landings and departing passenger numbers, Mthethwa said.