Recovering passenger traffic boosts AOT’s expectations of net profit in Q1
Airports of Thailand (AOT) is confident of reporting profits for the first quarter (October to December) of fiscal year 2022-23 as passenger numbers rise to 70% of pre-pandemic levels.
AOT president Nitinai Sirismatthakarn on Thursday said that the number of average passengers at six AOT airports is around 270,000 per day. The number has increased significantly from September when the average was around 190,000 passengers per day.
“Currently, passenger traffic has reached around 70% of the pre-pandemic 400,000 passengers per day,” he said.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, 30% of passengers were tourists. However, Chinese tourists have not returned yet, but the number of passengers is still recovering continuously, he said.
He added that the domestic markets have fully recovered while there are also new markets including the Middle East and India.
Nitinai said that the significant growth in recovery next year will depend on the Chinese situation, but AOT believes the number of passengers will be close to 2019 figures.
He was positive of AOT achieving a small net profit for the first quarter of the current fiscal year due to the festival celebrations in December.
Meanwhile, the AOT will open a Satellite Airport Terminal 1 (SAT-1) for Suvarnabhumi Airport in September 2023 to handle the high number of tourists in the cold season.
The SAT-1 is ready to open if there Suvarnabhumi Airport’s terminals are crowded, he said.
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