MAS expects better first quarter

The fourth quarter ended December 31 2012 seemed to have had particularly strong results, says chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airlines (MAS), which is in the midst of fund-raising, expects its first quarter financial results due March 31 2013 to be better than last year, group chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said.

"The first quarter normally has been a softer quarter traditionally because December tends to see strong travelling activity," he said.

As for the full year 2013, he said it was "too early to say" but added that the national carrier was putting in all the initiatives to achieve the desired results.

Ahmad Jauhari said the fourth quarter ended December 31 2012 seemed to have had particularly strong results.

"We achieved a load factor of 77.3 per cent," he said, adding that the full financial results will be announced by the end of this month.

The airline transported 3.718 million passengers during the quarter, of which 1.403 million were domestic and 2.315 million international travellers. It recorded a load factor of 81.4 per cent for December 2012 alone.

This was also greatly assisted through greater frequencies to some of popular regional destinations and faster aircraft turnaround time at airports.

MAS saw a net profit of RM37.5 million for the third quarter ended September 30 2012, a reversal from the loss of RM477 million in the same quarter a year before. Revenue decreased to RM3.47 billion from RM3.56 billion.

Meanwhile, on the airline's rights share issue, Ahmad Jauhari said the issue price will be announced early next month.

Earlier this month, MAS proposed a capital restructuring and renounceable rights issue to raise RM3.1 billion. It would be the fourth part of its funding programme to clean the balance sheet, where it carries accumulated losses of about RM8 billion.

MAS had started with the RM1.5 billion sukuk programme last year, a short-term funding from the banks to bridge aircraft financing and the setting up of the special purpose vehicle to purchase aircraft.

"With the funding programme, we should have a stronger balance sheet to finance new aircraft and take advantage of the growth in the region," Ahmad Jauhari said.

The company has been aggressively replacing its fleet because the average fleet age will be about seven years by year-end.