KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airlines yesterday reported another financial loss and warned of poor second-half earnings, as passenger bookings tumbled in response to the loss of two aircraft in separate disasters this year.
In a statement to the stock exchange, Malaysian Airline System Bhd (MAS) said its second-quarter net loss grew to 307.04m Malaysian ringgit ($97.6m) from a net loss of 175.9m ringgit in the same period a year earlier.
The result was an improvement from the net loss of 443m ringgit it reported in the first quarter.
The April-June earnings are the first to fully reflect the impact on sales of the unexplained disappearance of Flight MH370 in March. The airline is set to be taken private by its majority shareholder, state fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd, in a move to revamp its business — devastated this year by MH370’s loss and the shooting down of Flight MH17 over Ukraine in July.
MAS said the MH17 incident had derailed “all the hard work and effort” to regain market confidence and sales it had put in after the loss of MH370.
The two tragedies are expected to hit earnings in the months from July to December, as average weekly bookings declined 33 percent, with numerous flight cancellations immediately after the MH17 incident, said MAS.
Seat load factors fell 6.7 percentage points to 74 percent, next to a 9 percent increase in capacity during the quarter. Operating expenses rose 2 percent on higher fuel costs. The company’s shares will be suspended today ahead of the announcement of its planned restructuring by Khazanah, a source said.
Reuters
